One of those things that always make me wonder is how in this day and age, we can work very closely with people we don’t meet in real life. We can learn to know them, and share a lot of experiences together without being in the same place or knowing how they look. Then, when we finally meet them, we realise we already knew them.
Tag Archives: united kingdom
The rules of cricket
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
Science poems in the Tube
Found in my most recent trip to London.
Chatroulette!
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
The video above (via alt1040) explains Chatroulette better than I would. My experience with it has been mixed, but it reminds me a lot of the old BBS/ICQ free-for-all 10 years ago. I’ve read metaphors comparing it to TV zapping with people, but I think it’s more akin a people player in shuffle mode. Some of the nice people I’ve found (after nexting all the flying male body parts) included:
- A bored Filipina (at 3 a.m. her time) asking what music was I playing (Nortec Collective, of course).
- A Dutch law student with a great sense of humour.
- A German dude interested in banking for development (we were chatting about Muhammad Yunus)
- Random male stranger asking questions on existential philosophy (my conclusion is he had watched The Matrix too many times).
- A Texan in his 50’s very interested to know my views on the Mexican drug violence situation.
- A French literature student just interested in a chat, also with a really nice sense of humour.
- A young Indian female doctor waiting for her night shift to start who gave me a couple of nice suggestions of Indian indie after I mentioned I collect “local rock” from all over the place.
Serendipituous, yes. Extreme, sometimes (but you can also next them or even better report them, jerks!). An interesting study of the human condition, absolutely.
Nothing symbolises the UK quite like the phone booths
Remembrance Day
I came across Remembrance Day in my last stay in London. While I find the tradition very moving (especially given the current servicemen situation in Afghanistan), I am also slightly disturbed by its militaristic overtones. There’s nothing wrong with remembering your dead, but shouldn’t be used as a justification for hating others. After all, the First and Second World Wars were already some time ago.
Moctezuma, Aztec Ruler
I had the chance to check (quickly) this exhibition at the British Museum. If you have been to the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico then this will not show you a lot of new stuff.
If you haven’t had that chance and you happen to be in London, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. There’s a few pieces that are not shown in Mexico at all.
Spitalfields market, London
London, again
I was there for work this time. At least it was in SoHo, which is an area of the city I absolutely love. The rest of the pictures available in Flickr, as usual.
Café Tacuba in London
As part of their 20 years, 20 cities world tour Café Tacuba, my favourite Mexican band, visited this part of the world and we were there (careful with the speakers, sound level is rather high).
As you can imagine, I jumped around like a little kid, sang my heart out and was exhausted after the 2.5 hours were over. We took some more videos and pictures of the gig.