Mexico vs. history

Scary post from futbol y más regarding the history of World Cups and the host nation. As you know, the opening match of the FIFA World Cup is Mexico vs. host South Africa. As the table below shows, the host nation has never lost their first match, and they have always qualified to the second round. If this holds true for the 2010 edition, this means that Mexico will not win their first game and since only two of four teams qualify, they’d be fighting for that other spot against France and Uruguay.

Year Host 1st match win? 2nd round? # won # tied # lost Group rank
1930 Uruguay Yes Yes 2 0 0 1
1934 Italy Yes Yes NA NA NA NA
1938 France Yes Yes NA NA NA NA
1950 Brazil Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
1954 Switzerland Yes Yes 2 0 1 1
1958 Sweden Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
1962 Chile Yes Yes 2 0 1 2
1966 England Draw Yes 2 1 0 1
1970 Mexico Draw Yes 2 1 0 2
1974 W. Germany Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
1978 Argentina Yes Yes 2 0 1 2
1982 Spain Yes Yes 1 1 1 2
1986 Mexico Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
1990 Italy Yes Yes 3 0 0 1
1994 U.S.A. Draw Yes 1 1 1 3
1998 France Yes Yes 3 0 0 1
2002 Korea Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
2002 Japan Yes Yes 2 1 0 1
2006 Germany Yes Yes 3 0 0 1
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Thank you for the alfajor

One sure way to get yourself featured in The MKX® is to bribe the editors with some extremely dark chocolate or a delicious alfajor. This time Vanessa León brought me one (Havana, my favorite!) in her recent visit to Austin. Thank you Vanessa! Come back soon!

Posted in Life of Marcos | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Kirsch Industries

I really like their logo as well.

A reader sent me this screenshot of TV show Leverage, which I had never heard of. Turns out that my top choice for the name of the online publishing empire I’m building, future parent company for The MKX® is already taken… and they specialize in pigments. Most people think that a last name with 5 consonants but only 1 vowel would be rarer. They’d be surprised.

Feel free to suggest what I should call my online publishing empire, because I’m out of ideas.

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Moon

Moon

My first memory with your beauty does not sweep me,
I throw my guitar and my father yells at me,
My mother says: “That’s my sinner”,
And she takes me for a comforting walk in the moonlight.

My second memory: Your eyes do not sweep me,
I left home to the dangers of time,
When I asked you “Will you always be mine?”
You replied: “Look to the moon, a man’s already been there”.

After a year we rented
A room in front of the moon,
I started playing in a dark bar
On the street of the metal workshop.

And they screamed: “Take down
The short guy in the tuxedo”,
And only one said: “Kid, kid,
You shall yet bring down the moon of them”.

It was such a time
When happiness came through anger,
We laughed about everything,
Burned whatever we got our hands on,

There was nothing left
But to hug our troubles,
To say: “Yesterday was good
And tomorrow will be too”.

Yesterday was good,
Yesterday was good,
Yesterday was good,
And tomorrow will be too.

It’s hard to concentrate,
Because your beauty still haunts me,
It’s hard to say “It’s a shame”
Or to say “Maybe”.

Instead, I dance
And yell to the moon: “Come down”.
And blame the world
For my pain.

Sometimes I forget,
How I started in front of the moon,
When you forget, yes, yes,
Poor you

There’s rain in the sky
No moon in the meantime,
When it comes out we’ll walk together
Until we disappear.

It was such a time
When happiness came through anger,
We laughed about everything,
Burned whatever we got our hands on,

There was nothing left
But to hug our troubles,
To say: “Yesterday was good
And tomorrow will be too”.

Yesterday was good,
Yesterday was good,
Yesterday was good,
And tomorrow will be too.

ירח

,וזכרוני הראשון אם יופייך אינו מטעה אותי
,משליך גיטרה ואבי עלי צורח
,”ואימי אומרת “זה החוטא שלי
,ולוקחת אותי לטיול מנחם מול ירח

,וזכרוני השני, אם עינייך אינן מטעות אותי
עוזב את הבית אל סיכוני הזמן
“?כששאלתי אותך “האם תהיי לי לעולמים
.”ענית: “תביט לירח שם יש כבר אדם

ואחרי שנה שכרנו
,חדר מול ירח
מתחיל לנגן בבר קודר
.ברחוב המסגר

והם צרחו “תורידו
.”ת’נמוך עם הטוקסידו
ורק אחד אמר:”ילד ילד
“.עוד תוריד את הירח בשבילם

היתה תקופה כזו
,שהאושר בא בזעם
,צחקנו מהכל
.שרפנו את מה שבא ליד

לא נשאר לנו אלא
,לחבק את הצער
להגיד “אתמול היה טוב
.”ויהיה גם מחר

,אתמול היה טוב
,אתמול היה טוב
,אתמול היה טוב
.ויהיה גם מחר

,קשה לי להתרכז
,כי יופייך עוד מהמם אותי
קשה להגיד חבל
.או לומר אולי

במקום זה אני רוקד
.”וצועק לירח: “רד
ומאשים את העולם
.בכאבי

,לפעמים אני שוכח
,איך התחלתי מול ירח
,כשאתה שוכח כן, כן
אתה מסכן

יש גשם בשמיים
,אין ירח בינתיים
וכשיצא נלך ביחד
.עד שנעלם

היתה תקופה כזו
,שהאושר בא בזעם
,צחקנו מהכל
,שרפנו את מה שבא ליד

לא נשאר לנו אלא
,לחבק את הצער
להגיד “אתמול היה טוב
.”ויהיה גם מחר

,אתמול היה טוב
,אתמול היה טוב
,אתמול היה טוב
.ויהיה גם מחר

One of my favorite songs ever, by Shlomo Artzi. Listen on YouTube.

Posted in Falafel and more, Music | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Water squirting nickel

I recently purchased a water squirting nickel for something like $3. It’s the best $3 I’ve ever spent: funniest thing ever. I took it to Monterrey on my most recent trip for my cousin Jaco’s Bar Mitzvah and entertained myself (wow, that sounded dirty) endlessly by squirting just about everyone there. The story: look for the telltale signs of a supposedly counterfeited nickel, which I swapped right before showing the defect to the victim.

I only taped a small percentage of the victims that night and posted it as a mind-numbing 1:46 minutes long YouTube video. Trust me, you had to be there, it was hilarious.

I feel like I can finally post this, even though it will ruin the joke in the future, because:

  1. Joseph took my nickel.
  2. Most of the people I know have seen it by now.

For the record, everyone I pulled this prank on fell for it. But only one person fell for it TWICE!!!

Posted in Around the world | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Pho King

I recently learned about a new Vietnamese restaurant in Austin called Pho King. It sounds way too close to a conjugated form of the f-word. As of this writing, their website still has Lorem ipsum text placeholders and some stock photos. See screenshot below:

The place does exist: here’s the Yelp link.  So… is the name an accident? Or a stroke of viral-marketing genius? I’m happy to hear your opinions and reviews in the comments.

Posted in Keep Austin Weird | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

iPad announcement summary

Apparently Apple has announced a new product called iPad. It’s like a big iPod touch. Having owned all three iPhone models  I must admit I would probably enjoy owning an iPad, limitations and all.

As it is, I already use my iPhone more than I use my laptop anyway:  when I wake up, I check my email on my iPhone, not on my laptop. When I want to see the weather, I check it on the iPhone, not on my laptop… The list goes on.

When I use my laptop, most of the time I use it to watch video or browse the internet in bed or in the living room couch. The iPad should do all these things more comfortably than my laptop. The only thing it’s really missing for me is a webcam for videoconferencing. I’m not saying that it will replace my laptop… but it may end up being an additional toy.

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Cool tape measure skills

If Stan “The Man” Lee ever sees the video, we’ll get a new superhero.

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T-1

T is for Tablet.

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Monterrey Interliga Champion

Monterrey winners of the Interliga 2010

Last night, Club de Fútbol Monterrey (previously featured) won the Interliga 2010 by defeating América 3-1 in penalty kicks. This is the second title they’ve won recently and it gets them into this year’s edition of the Copa Libertadores, the continent’s most important club competition and the oldest soccer tournament in the world. This will be the second time “Los Rayados” play in this tournament, and the first time ever that the current Mexican champion represents Mexico in this Cup.

2010 is shaping up to be quite a soccer year for me…

Posted in Jogo Bonito | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment