Masacotes de Tangamandapio. NI Volleyball Intermediate League 2016 winners.
It only took 15 years.
Today’s quote: Nicholas
Comment by a reader in a Financial Times article about Brexit, sadly behind a paywall but accessible via Google search results. Emphasis added by me, highlighting the parts that are sadly applicable to recent US politics.
A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted us to leave because they were economically disregarded and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term from the dearth of jobs and investment. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another one. Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors. Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When [British Conservative, pro-Brexit politician] Michael Gove said ‘the British people are sick of experts’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has lead to anything other than bigotry?
Copa América Centenario
The Copa América Centenario is over. For me at least – no more stadium. I got to go to the stadium for all three matches held in Houston.
Game 1: Colombia 2-3 Costa Rica
Colombia’s coach Nestor Pekerman miscalculated and lost the match and the first place of the group. Still made it to quarterfinals. Costa Rica closed the tournament with dignity. Interestingly, this is the second time I see Costa Rica play, and they won both times.
Game 2: Mexico 1-1 Venezuela
Venezuela did well and was ahead for most of the game.
A few days after the Orlando gay club shooting, the full stadium respectfully honors the victims with a moment of silence before the match starts. But only a few minutes later, the cultured Mexican fans go back to their famous gay slur:
I get it, people who are obviously straight think it’s funny and not offensive in this context. But it’s up to those who feel offended to decide whether it’s offensive. Also, the joke is kind of old by now.
Game 3: Argentina 4-0 USA
Oh boy, Argentina played at half capacity and completely humiliated the host team. USA had no ball possession and created no opportunities. In the second half, the American players would stay 3-6 feet away from Lionel Messi whenever he had the ball… they simply stopped trying. Due to happy circumstances and the generosity of some people, I sat really close to the field and was able to see the action up-close.
This is my view – short video of Argentina’s 4th goal celebration:
Happy Father’s Day
To the most patient, fun-loving, sweet and devoted dad in all the land! Ilan is a very lucky boy. We love you!
Mascotes 2016
Iker, Santiago, Carlos
Los Mascotes – NI’s summer volleyball league’s oldest (maybe) team – is back. Against all odds we reached the final last year. And lost it.
Can we win the league this time? Yes, we can.
Experiencia Rayada
A couple of weeks ago I toured the new stadium with my dad, brothers and their kids and wives. I had already been to the game but for some reason they didn’t let me use the jacuzzi in the locker room that time. Conspicuously absent were my own kid and wife. I suppose they don’t care and I’ll go to Russia by myself in 2018.
The tour is called Experiencia Rayada and here are a few pics.
HTC Vive
They have an HTC Vive demo setup at the local Microsoft Store (a. k. a. Bizarro Apple Store). This is a Virtual Reality headset, the biggest competitor to and not too different from the Oculus Rift that I tried out two years (!) ago.
So how is this different? Well, other than the obvious two years of software polish and CPU/GPU advancements, this thing has two really cool things:
- Positional tracking: you can walk around a small area/room and it knows where your head is. What you see matches your movements. The Oculus Rift I tried two years ago doesn’t have this, although the one going to consumers does. It doesn’t allow you to walk around though.
- Really cool controllers: This is very impressive. While “inside” VR you cannot really see yourself. But you can see the two controllers you are holding floating in the right spot.
They had 3 demo apps.
- theBlue: Encounter puts you under the sea on a shipwreck. You can walk around a little but it’s mostly about looking around and listening. Very pretty.
- Tilt Brush by Google really wowed me. You use one of the controllers to “paint” in 3D space. With the other controller you can change brushes and colors. You can walk around your “paintings”. I started with a life-size stick figure, but when I reached the feet I figured I can draw in 3D space so started doing a running pose, one feet in front, the other in the back, etc. So much fun.
- Space Pirate Trainer is a shooting game in which. It’s really well made. You can hold a see-through shield on one hand. You can move around and dodge shots against little floating robots. Very neat.
(Yes, I know vertical video syndrome. Unacceptable.)
Am I going to get one? Who knows. I rarely play video games lately. But I can see this being extremely fun. It’s expensive though, $800 for the Vive + ~$1200 for a decent gaming PC that I don’t own. I’d need to set it up in a room. It sure is an attractive idea. But one needs to keep in mind that trying out demos for 10 minutes in not the same as using this for hours at a time.
At this stage these VR rigs are really impressive, and they will only get progressively better: higher resolution (pixels are still too obvious), faster response, smoother tracking, wireless headsets, lighter headsets.
Do yourself a favor and try it out. It’s worth trying on off-peak hours in order to avoid lines.
The Iron Giant
I finally got to go to Monterrey’s new stadium, the recently inaugurated Estadio BBVA Bancomer. What a beauty – I felt like I was in a different country altogether.
I actually went twice: on April 23 to watch Monterrey 3-2 Queretaro, and then to the Experiencia Rayada tour.
I will miss the decrepit homeyness of Estadio Tecnológico where I spent countless afternoons of soccer; that said, this place is amazing. See for yourself: photos from the match day. Photos from the tour in a separate post.
Cap10K Addendum
This is kind of cool: the My Pace page for the race. You can see a map and then “replay” the race to see how I advance. You can add others for comparison, so you can virtually see them eat my dust.
You can also see some tiny watermarked photos of me in lots of pain:
This is kind of cool as well: A “dronie” (their term, not mine) of the National Instruments Corporate Team.
Cap10K Results
My time for this year’s Cap10K race was: 50:59.0.
Not too shabby for someone pushing a jogging stroller with a 17 month old kid around downtown Austin. But considering I wasn’t doing that, then it’s not that impressive. At least compared to my previous efforts:
Am I past my peak? Or was this but a small bleep in an ever improving race time? Who knows. Right now I’m in too much pain to consider ever running again.
As with Playboy, most of you are here for the article. But a few came for the pictures:
Also, the group photo/video was taken from a drone but I haven’t received it. I will post it when I do.