Brazil Trip - Igauzu Falls

I just returned from a 10 day trip to Brazil. We went to Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, and the Amazon Rainforest via the city of Manaus.

In this post, I've noted some notes and tips about visiting the Iguazu Falls.  You can visit the falls from either Brazil or Argentina, but we only saw the view from Brazil.

• Try to sit on the top level of the double decker buses that take you from the main entrance to the falls.  On the way there, sit on the right side side, and on the way back, sit on the left side.
• Go to the bird park.  You get an extremely close up view of many birds.  Our favorite was probably the Toucan.  We enjoyed the bird park about as much as we liked the falls.
• Try to book a flight that doesn't leave too early or too late, so that you can take the public bus from the city center to the airport.  It is much cheaper. 
• We went to Bufalo Branco Churrascaria.  The meat was ok, but a little bit rare for our tastes.  The salad bar is pretty meager.  If you do plan on going to this or any churrascaria, make sure you have a translator or a word list of the major meats so that you have an idea of whether you are eating beef, chicken, lamb, or whatever.
• We stayed at the Aquas do Iguacu Hotel.  The location is close to the bus stop and to a few restaurants.  The breakfast food tasted a bit stale and we had an issue with a bunch of bees flying all over the dining area.  Overall, this hotel is affordable and just sufficient.  

Brazil Trip - Rio de Janeiro with a tour group

I just returned from a 10 day trip to Brazil.  We went to Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, and the Amazon Rainforest via the city of Manaus.

In this post, I've noted my experience with a tour group in Rio.

We started our trip in Rio.  The day we landed, we took a tour with Brazil Expedition.  We also used this tour company to pick us up from the airport.  The tour started by picking us up from the hotel and taking us to a beach where hang gliders were landing.  We had about 20 minutes to watch hang gliders and sign up for a ride later on.  This part of the tour was rather useless and I felt like it was only there to get us to sign up for something after.

We were then taken to Tijuca National Park.  After a long flight and car ride, it was nice to walk around the park and breathe in the fresh air.  In total, we walked in the park, took pictures of trees and waterfalls, and returned back to the tour van in about 45 minutes.

The next visit was the Christ the Redeemer Statue.  At this time of the year there were very few people and there were virtually no lines to see the site.  We were told that the lines could be very long in peak season.  The tour guide brought us to the ticket entrance area but did not actually enter.  I think she did not enter because she would have had to pay the entrance fee.  While it was nice to walk around at our own pace, it would have been good to have the guide around to give us details and so that we could ask questions.

After we returned to the van, the tour guide gave us a little overview of how and why the statue was made.  I think it would have been better if they gave us this information before we visited the statue.  Perhaps they usually do it while the group is waiting on the line to enter.  I actually learned a bit more overhearing another private tour guide who was walking near us as we entered the site.

We then went to the secret Lapa steps.  We were dropped off at the top of the steps and walked down.  About half a block away from the block of the steps, we had a traditional brazilian lunch.  We paid for our own lunch, which was pretty good.

Overall, the tour provides an easy way to see a few of the major sites in Brazil.  They could improve in time management and I would have enjoyed a bit more information about all of the sites we visited.

Better Android logging

Programming is a humbling experience.  It seems like everything I code has room for improvement.

Today, I found out about android.util.log.  This class gives you a better way to print out logging statements.  So, instead of doing,

System.out.println("Look! Code finished, the value is:"+value);

which would print data to the LogCat window in Eclipse with a logging level of INFO, you can do something like,

Log.w("MyTag","Look! Code finished, the value is:"+value);

which prints data to the same LogCat window in Eclipse with a logging level of WARN with a tag of "MyTag".  You can adjust the logging level by using Log.v, Log.d, Log.i, Log,e, Log.a which are verbose, debug, info, error, and assert respectively.  

The best part of this logging is the tag.  With the tag, in Eclipse you can create a filter in the LogCat window, and just see your tagged logging messages.  This is very nice if you are testing on a real phone or tablet which may have a lot of other logging messages unrelated to the app you are testing.

This is much better than just using a System.out.println, because the system messages are sometimes very hard to find among the clutter of other logging output.

I think small changes like this reduces developer frustration and friction, which ultimately leads to improvements in developer productivity.

What happened to the sports section

When I was a kid, sports was a treat.  My earliest memory of knowing about sports was the 1986 Mets world series.  For some reason, everyone was happy.  Everyone in the city was celebrating together, and I joined in, without really understanding why.  My second earliest memory was watching the Giants win the superbowl in 1990.  By this time, I knew what sports was, watched the whole game, and truly appreciated the win.

From then on, I would watch whatever games (baseball, basketball, or football) that I could.  If you missed the game, since we didn't have 24 hour coverage with ESPN, your only hope was to catch a few highlights at the end of an hour long news broadcast or read a recap of it in tomorrow's paper.  I loved those little morsels of sports.

Why did I like sports?  Mostly, because it was fun to play.  Sports was also an escape into an idealized life.  There were heroes trying to overcome obstacles ending in either heartbreaking defeat or jubilant triumph.  Things were clear and lacked ambiguity.

In the past few decades, sports has evolved for me.  Coverage of sports has gotten intense.  ESPN runs sports games and analysis all day, every day.  With the power DVR, these days I've been able to watch a lot of playoff basketball.  Since I don't care about watching games live, I can watch a 3 hour broadcast of a game in less than an hour whenever I have time.  This is achieved by fast forwarding through commercials, free throws, time outs, and time used for instant replay reviews.  This is awesome.

Analysis of sports is pretty great now too.  After I watch a game, I typically look through twitter for reactions.  As a fan, it's fun to hear others celebrating with me.  It's similar to the experience of watching a game with other fans, without the pain of paying for tickets or going through traffic to get to the game.  The day after a game, I could get a newspaper for a recap, but I also have a few sports blogs which will write a few articles on a game or nba podcasts to listen to.

Sports has gotten a lot more subtle and complicated.  A player used to be judged on merit and beloved for effort.  Nowadays, a fan cannot simply like a player anymore.  A fan must know the player's history, the player's stats and be able to argue why that player has a better salary structure than another.  Advanced stats has convinced us that we cannot even tell who the best players are just by watching.  We need experts to analyze the game and tell us who we should cheer for.

Even if you ignore stats, choosing a player to root for is still complicated.  Every athlete now has a narrative.  We no longer judge them solely on their performance.  We must delve into their hypothetical emotions, motivations, and psyche to conclude whether this player deserves praise or not.

The other day, a new story line emerged when an NBA player, Jason Collins, announced that he is gay.  I suppose that is news, and I hope that it reduces bias and discrimination.  But as a kid, it's not really the sports story I craved for.  As an adult sports fan, I couldn't care less that he's gay.  I'd rather hear about his defensive footwork than what he likes to do outside of the game.

How has sports evolved?  It was a treat.  It was an ice-breaker where anybody could ask anyone else, "Did you see the game last night?"  Now it's as complicated as picking stocks.  It is as emotional as any soap opera.  Its rules are as complicated as our judicial system.  It's players have gotten to be so physically superior to the average person that they scarcely resemble anyone I know.

So is sports better than it was?  I think it oddly takes more effort than it used to.  In the past, I watched every game or highlight I could and read every newspaper article I could find.  This often left me wanting for more.  Now, there's too much.  I don't have time to watch every game I have access to, read every newspaper or blog, and listen to every podcast.  I think the challenge is getting as much sports as I want, but not any more than that.

Sports has changed a lot in my life time.  I wonder where it will go in the future.