As you, MKX® reader most certainly already know, Austin Texas is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world. Yup, 1.5 million bats live under the Congress Avenue bridge and shoot out every night. Some say they go out to eat between 10,000 and 30,000 pounds of insects. Others say they go to Sixth Street to get a Flaming Dr. Pepper at a local bar. I say they should come over to my place and do some eating around here… I can use it.
But I digress. So as part of the Summer 2006 Keep Austin Weird tour with my mom and dad, we went to check out the famous bats. It’s very cool, and it looks like my mom’s pigeon phobia does not translate to small flying rodents. Now that makes sense. See the photos and relive the emotion in the new-ish Photo Central. Or, a The Marcos Kirsch Experience® first: see the video in YouTube.
Is this a crappy cellphone picture of a Southern Beirut neighborhood or perhaps the landing site of a Katyusha rocket in Haifa?
Nope, this is a much more mundane thing. There was a fire today in the mall that’s being constructed accross the street from work. The snapshot was taken from the sixth floor of the Truchard Design Center (a.k.a. MoPac C) using my crappy cellphone camera.
You can’t tell from the crappy cellphone photo, but the fire was actually quite big and there were about five or six fire trucks trying to put it out. I would say that between the time the fire started and the time they were done putting it out, about 45 minutes elapsed. Also gave me something to post about on this blog for my many, many faithful readers and couple of stalkers. Oh wow.
And so this ends today’s episode of: So, anything interesting?
R&D engineers from the Modular Instruments group take a look at the most interesting thing to happen at work since the last bat-attack.
[Update 7/25/2006] Colleague Mike Jablin took decent photos, and they made it to the local news!
These handsome gentlemen are the best(*) team in the NI Summer Volleyball league. Feared by other teams and absolute owners of the net.
The Masacotes de Tlaquepaque (formerly known as Masacotes de Chicontepec and sometimes refered to as Voladores de Papantla) is integrated by El Mota, La Urraca, El Bulldozer, myself, Jaramillo and the self-proclaimed captain Masacapi. Missing in the photo is star setter and babe magnet Gustavocote who had a severe case of diarrhea that night.
*Definition of best: team with the hardest name to pronounce for english speakers.
Click to see the full size photo and you’ll notice that Anand has also won an air hockey tournament and belongs to the world famous Austin soccer team the NI Eagles.
After a month of non-stop World Cup soccer Italy takes the championship for the fourth time. Congratulations to them. Cetrulo is thrilled. I’m happy for him.
But I don’t care.
What I do care about is that after a shameful start in La Polla I was able to recover and finish 9th out of 81. See for yourself. This means I beat my uncle in a head-to-head bet and I proved to Alejandro del Castillo that my soccer knowledge vastly exceeds his own (as if that needed to be proved). Impressively, if you count only the second round, then I would have finished second out of 81. Anand Narayanan wins, but we all know he’s just very lucky ever since he shaved off that mustache.
All in all, I watched 46 out of 64 matches in this World Cup. That’s a lot of fútbol my friend. And I must frankly admit I’ve had enough. I am ready to move on to something else. Such as the Mexican Soccer League.
At 3:00 AM I finally got back from Miami (connecting flight from HOU was very delayed). Sarai got sick and flew back hence missing all the sun and all the (wholesome) fun. We had a chance to catch Jaco, Joana and my nieces Liat and Joelle who look more and more like me every day (lucky girls). Also, the Guatemalan cerotes Alex Torun and Jonathan Salem happened to be in town. I hadn’t seen them in ages. Ditto Jorge (who is not in nearly enough photos!), Nora, Esther.
The now classic “Mexican Slap to the Forehead” was heard TWICE on Saturday around the world, like thunder, when 120 million Mexicans lamented their horrible luck – as opposed to the Argentinian’s (and their women too!).
It is a urban legend that this trademark gesture was patented by a Iuval Levinson.
Last Sunday, in Monterrey, I went to the new (opened in February 2005) explanade and giant flag next to the Obispado museum. Since it was such a clear day, we took the opportunity tu go up there and take a nicke 360° QuickTime VR panorama of the city (basically, I did the driving and Moi did the photographing with his fancy tripod). It’s a very high quality file of over 7 MB, so be patient and make sure to zoom in to the details!
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