Author Archives: mikeyllorin

Wrestling

Imagine a simulation of a simulation of sport

Wired: ‘This Immersive Michael Jordan Simulator IS the World’s Coolest Basketball Court’

When the experience kicks in, it’s like a video game augmenting real life. A path lights up on the ground to show you where to go. On each wall, 4K footage of a real crowd cheers or boos depending on whether you deliver. In the Utah scenario, the “home crowd” cheers when you miss—a nice touch.

A real play-by-play announcer calls out your every move, and real players on the court deliver that key assist, play defense and act as stand-ins for Byron Russell, playing along when you push off.

Your move, Axxess.

Imagine a WrestleMania III simulator where you can slam an actor playing as Andre. Or a WrestleMania XII simulator where you kick a Bret Hart actor in the face to achieve your boyhood dream. Or a WrestleMania XX simulator where you become a non-existent wrestler who makes Triple H tap out.

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Uncategorized

It’s been too long

You're kidding.

A photo posted by Mikey Llorin (@mikeyllorin) on Sep 16, 2015 at 1:51am PDT

The following are what’s been up:

  • I updated the Hurry up the Cakes About Page to finally reflect the fact that I am now a married man
  • I co-founded a wrestling blog that focuses on the Filipino wrestling fandom called Smark Henry. Go check it out!
  • I have owned an Apple Watch for half a year now, but have yet to write the official Hurry up the Cakes Apple Watch review. Here’s the short version: I have worn it nearly every day since it arrived, and the one day that I didn’t felt very weird.
  • Two podcasts were so very gracious to have me on as guests on the same week:
    • My old pal Sawyer Paul had me on his International Object podcast the day after the September Apple Event to discuss the new Apple products, fandom evangelism, and the fatigue that comes with being a critical fan. Check it out here!
    • The boys over on the Smark Gilas Pilipinas Podcast invited me over after listening to the IO episode to break down the aforementioned critical fandom fatigue. In other words, we all just vented about how hard it is to be us. How arrogant. Check it out here!
  • Klean Kanteen is a thing I am geeking out about. I want to write a long-form review of my 32 oz Insulated Classic water bottle with Sport Cap 3.0, but here is the short version: It’s beautifully designed, it’s the great for the environment, it’s incredibly durable, and you should get one. And try to never buy bottled water, as much as possible.
  • Cooking is a thing that I do now. I don’t think I have any right to post about my own recipes (yet) (?), so I would just like to share a two of my favorites that I found online:
  • My writing muscles are all out of shape. Some may argue that they’ve never been in shape, but I feel that they are now the worst they’ve ever been due to sheer inactivity. So here I am, declaring my weakness to the world, hoping to convince every one that I am not okay with it.
  • We are on the Road to WrestleMania and it just seems like it would be so much more exciting if there wasn’t so much pressure for it to be the biggest ever, business-wise. It’s unfortunate that in a wrestling landscape which features the most collectively talented wrestling performer roster(s) ever, the foremost question on most fan’s minds (including mine) is “How will they impress enough casual/former fans to fill up Cowboys Stadium?”
  • I promise not to make that same mistake for the WrestleMania moments of my life
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Geekery

Boringly reasonable

Marco Arment, speculating on next week’s Apple event:

Apple’s letting the $10,000–20,000 guesses simmer in the press to set price expectations high, just as they stayed quiet when everyone thought the first iPad would cost $1000. Maybe it’s for the same reason: maybe the Edition won’t be completely unreasonably priced for a piece of electronic jewelry that will probably be completely obsolete in five years but happens to be encased in a thousand bucks worth of solid gold. Letting people believe it’ll cost so much will make the real price seem like a great deal when it’s announced.

I’m guessing the Edition is closer to $5,000: expensive and very profitable, but boringly reasonable for a solid-gold electronic gadget.

To me, the most sensible predictive take on the Apple Watch yet.

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Geekery, Musings

Apple and “Cool”

Tim Cook burnnnnns, during his Goldman Sachs talk:

I think one of the biggest surprises people are going to have when they start using it is the breadth of what it will do. Obviously, it’s a precision timepiece. And, just like you’re wearing a watch and you probably think it looks really cool…I’m not sure I do, but…

Dave Mark, of The Loop, comments:

It’s a funny moment. But I wonder if it was truly accidental. I wonder if that was a choreographed move, an intentional shot across the bow of traditional watchmakers, telling the world that a new standard of cool is coming.

Look, Apple the company usually has their finger on the pulse of coolness—or, at the very least, on what I think is cool. But I will not take let the old white men that sit on Apple’s executive committee tell me whether or not my fashion sense is cool. Tim Cook as the awesome gay uncle may occassionally be able to get away with it, but I think the whole determining-what’s-cool agenda should be left to Apple the company, not the individual dudes who run it.

I mean, look at this guy. This is the guy that first demoed the Apple Watch:

Roll up your sleeves and get a haircut, Kev. The world is watching.

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