First stop: Miami
Packing went well:
People kept staring at me at the airport. Rudeness? Racism?
Tag Archives: worldcup
Mexico vs Cameroon
Never mind that it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to find tickets for this match, the stadium is half empty (I’m a pessimist). Screw FIFA.
Half time in, the referee already screwed us three times – he must have bet Cameroon wins in the polla.
In any case, here’s the half time picture, from Austin TX.
Polla Brasileira 2014
The World Cup fever keeps increasing, and I’m about to make it better:
Announcing Polla Brasileira 2014. I have run other successful pollas (note: under definition #5) before. What made them so much fun is that instead of using some manual management tool such as paper, email, or Excel spreadsheets, I went through the trouble of developing a full online system from scratch which made everything very real-time and interactive. Back then I wrote the system using PHP and stored all the data in plain text files – no database. It was simple and limited, but it worked.
They were a huge success:
- Polla FIFA 2006: 81 participants
- La Polla América 2007: 69 participants
It wasn’t all fun and games though. The Polla is known to cause health issues on some of the participants:
When I decided to cancel the Europolla 2008, soccer fans were disappointed:
This time, Polla Brasileira is back with a vengeance and it is better than ever. I’ve been making some massive improvements to the system, working through nights (as I said, the Polla is known to cause health issues). Amongst them:
- A proper login/account system. You can now stay logged in to the system, change your information, use Gravatar, email verification, captcha… This is a huge improvement over what I had. I’m using code from The PHP-LOGIN project and they will get a donation.
- Security enhancement: Passwords are stored only in hashed/salted form – nobody, not even I can retrieve them.
- Security enhancement: We are using SSL so all the information is transmitted securely. You may not care about the NSA knowing what you predict for Croatia VS Cameroon, but your passwords are transmitted too.
- Responsive layout. When we last did the polla, there were no iPhones – Blackberrys ruled the world and they were only useful for texting. Now the website should scale and display nicely across all your devices. Try it out!
- New and improved look.
- Full use of MySQL. No more plain text junk, we now have a proper database system. This is a gigantic back-end overhaul and has been worth it so far. I’m using code from ezSQL and they will get a donation.
- Facebook page replaces the forum and news sections. Last time we did the polla, Facebook was not popular… Go and Like it!
- And many other enhancements across the board.
Doing the polla is a lot of work for me, but it would not be possible without the support of my friends helping out:
- Moi, CSS guru
- Eva, treasurer
- José Antonio, SQL consultant
- Shlomit, proofreader and hasn’t divorced me
- And everyone else who’s helped in one way or another…
You can register now!
Panini World Cup Brazil 2014 sticker album
I know I’m a little late to the party (only 32 more days!), but I finally started my 2014 World Cup sticker album. Progress is slow but steady, and you can track it here.
Brazil 2014… Finally
World Champions!
Mexico just won the U-17 FIFA World Cup, like they did in 2005. This is A Big Fucking Deal®.
The game was not as insanely dramatic as the semifinal, which is probably best for our health. The MKX® official correspondent Moi covered the match for us. He posted a sweet, sweet gallery on his blog. I strongly suggest you head over to check the photos out. I also strongly suggest you start saving for Brazil 2014.
To the final
If you thought that Dos Santos’ goal in the Gold Cup final was insane, you should check out last night’s results in the U-17 World Cup semifinal.
When Mexico tied the game 2-2 with an olympic goal, Julio Gómez left the field with a 7-inch cut in the head. He came back ten minutes later to score the last minute winning goal against Germany… with a bicycle kick. You can’t make this stuff up, it’s like a movie.
Will we have a 2005 repeat? I sure hope so. All goals below.
Completing my album
I received a mysterious envelope with a return address in Germany. I wasn’t expecting it so quickly: My own myPanini World Cup sticker for my album. It’s finally (almost) complete:
Compared to the 2006 version, I look a lot happier and hairier. Most readers will quickly point out that I’m wearing an outdated 1994 Umbro jersey instead of the current one. You are right – but I guarantee that this photo was taken in 2010 next to none other than former national team legend Luis Roberto Alves “Zague”! (see original).
There’s already quite a long waiting list, but I do have a few extras. So if you want your limited edition Marcos Kirsch sticker, just ask nicely in a comment.
And if you know what happened to the mystery sticker shipment from Panama (you know who you are), please let me know.
The World Cup at Alamo Drafthouse
The awesome Austin institution Alamo Drafthouse movie theater decided to show all FIFA World Cup matches live in one of their beautiful screens. This is probably the next best thing to being there, so I headed out there today to check out Uruguay VS Holland. It’s great to watch the game like this, with our own pitcher of Firemans 4 and good food.
My only suggestion: Make it 3D the next time!
South Africa thoughts (part 2)
This is part 2 of my two-part collection of random thoughts from South Africa. Part 1 is here. Click on Read more for part 2.