Roger Federer On A Roll, Wins Indian Wells

Roger Federer has been on a roll since last year's US Open. He's won 39 of his last 41 matches (unfortunately both losses in Grand Slams) and won four of the last six tournaments he entered. His win at BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, ties Nadal for the record at 19 Master 1000 titles. Federer also leads the South African Airways ATP Ranking Race to London which is no surprise given his recent victories.

Book: Rafa, Rafael Nadal's Autobiography

Here is my take on Rafael Nadal's autobiography "Rafa". Being a huge tennis fan, I found it interesting to read what went on in Nadal's head throughout his career up until the end of 2010. It's kind of funny for someone to have an autobiography when they're only 24. I guess someone in his entourage really wanted this project to go through and it did.

Fun Facts

• Rafa was born and raised in Manacor, Mallorca, a town of 40,000
• Rafa feels closer to Mallorcans compared to other Spaniards (he speaks Mallorqui, dialect of Catalan and incomprehensible to Spanish)
• Mallorca is the only place Rafa can be in peace, people leave him alone with the notion that everyone is equal. A quote from a book that describes the culture of Nadal's hometown well, "Dear Mallorcans", tells us, “Anyone who tries to raise their head above the rest will immediately have it chopped off.”  
• Nadal literally mean "Christmas" in Catalan 
• Rafa cut out running from training (says he runs enough in practice/matches) Wow! 
• Uncle Toni did not get paid for his time as a coach but he owns half of Rafa's father's company and takes half the profits without doing any work. 

Manacor on Google Maps

AWESOME FOOD Update: Cacao 70 New Menu (Montreal)

If you haven't seen my original post on Cacao 70, click here.

Cacao 70 recently changed it's menu. Prices are a bit higher but there are new items that we tried that were very good. They added a few dishes, like the Strawberry and Cheesecake Crepe seen below and my personal favorite, the Black and White Waffle. The cheesecake is softer than what I am used to but still tasty. The waffle is basically a pound cake in the shape of a waffle and with the addition of extra ice cream (used to be one scoop which wasn't enough) and crunchy chocolate wafer balls, it's the best you can get.

TEDTalk 2023: Prometheus (Film)

Here's an interesting TEDTalk that I just saw from 2023. That's right, the future.

New Scenes and Trailer for The Avengers

If you haven't seen the latest trailer for Marvel's Avengers Assemble, and you are somewhat of a comic book fan, than you should definitely click the video below. What's interesting to note is that the German version of the trailer has a few extra scenes not seen in the English version.

TEDx Talks: Jack Horner, Shape Shifting Dinosaurs

There is a cool TED Talk [see video at the end] by dino-guru Jack Horner about why we never find "small" dinosaurs. It seems that paleontologists often find "new" species of dinosaurs when in reality, they really find a juvenile dino of a species that has already been discovered. Horner claims that this is due, in part, to the ego of men and their claim to fame in discovering and naming a species. His hypothesis about why many "different" dinosaurs are really just one dinosaur at various stages of its life is pretty compelling.

FOOD: Seoul Chako (Montreal)

The rather new Korean BBQ place in Montreal is located at 1824 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest. If you're not familiar with Korean BBQ's, the concept is based around cooking your own food on a grill. Seoul Chako's decor is nice and the restaurant is pretty spacious.

Kickstarter: Double Fine Adventure

For those who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, here's how Wikipedia defines it:

Kickstarter is an online crowdfunding website for creative projects. Kickstarter has crowdfunded a diverse array of endeavors,^[1]ranging from indie film and music to journalism, solar energy technology and food-related projects.^[2]

Basically, this means that you, or anyone, can create a project on Kickstarter, and hope that everyday people from around the world will "back" up the project's development. The idea is that small amounts from a large "crowd" can generate sufficient funding, thus reducing the dependency on traditional investors (VC, banks...). Backers are usually compensated with the first production samples, a limited edition item or a behind the scenes look at development. Kickstarter takes 5% of projects that reach their fund raising goals (projects that don't reach their goal receive no money) and Amazon Payments takes an additional 3-5%.

LEGO Mini Figurines: Lord of the Rings and More

LEGO has long dominated the land with huge licenses for its iconic construction sets (scroll to see DC Universe, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Toy Story and more). The latest and greatest upcoming LOTR theme is timed to coincide with the release of The Hobbit. Here are some cool images of some of the mini-figs, a must for all LOTR and LEGO fans!

Tennis: Australian Open 2012, Djokovic vs Nadal Rivalry

Novak Djokovic does it again to win his fourth Grand Slam title. What's interesting to note is that he now owns Rafael Nadal (he won his last seven matches against Nadal, three in Grand Slam finals) after starting off with a mediocre 30% win percentage in their first 23 head-to-head matches over a five-year span.

*Just added at the bottom, a video of Nadal and Djokovic about to collapse after playing for six hours at the Aussie Open Final and having to listen to the long winded sponsors and admin speeches. Pretty funny.

What's interesting about this rivalry, compared to say Federer vs Nadal is that the tide has completely shifted. Federer never owned Nadal, in fact, Nadal went from beating Federer half the time, to almost beating him every time (just like how Federer owns Roddick). Even though Federer destroyed Nadal (6-3, 6-0) in the 2011 year ending Championships in London, he hasn't beaten the Spaniard in a Grand Slam in five years.

Technology: Samsung's Transparent Smart Window CES 2012

After introducing some cool new tech like the Flexible AMOLED Screen, Samsung revealed it's Transparent Smart Window at CES this year. Dubbed by many online reviewers as the "Minority Report" screen, the screen acts as like a one-sided pane that allows you to use widgets and to block out sunlight like regular blinds on a window. It will go into mass production this year but its size seems to be a bit smaller than most windows I know of.

My question is: Will future architects start to plan their designs around these more sophisticated devices?

AWESOME FOOD: Kiss Grill (Montreal)

All "Kiss Grill" photos courtesy of Whirl256 (Josie)

We tried this place for my birthday after reading good reviews. I like grilled food so didn't think I could go wrong. The best too is that the service is REALLY fast so you get your appetizers right away and your main 5-10 mins after that. We ordered a bunch of things and here is what I tasted:

Appetizers:
- Japanese Vegetable Salad
- Spicy Julienne Salad
- Duck
- Won ton soup
- Grilled Chicken Wings