Anybody is getting anything techie/entertainment for this black fri or this week altogether?
After not having a TV for almost a decade (used streaming on PC or ipad), I've got LG G5...need a TV to watch the World Cup next summer.
A small detail: I entered the drawing for tickets...so far none-not even a pip squeak from FIFA.
You could get a "hospitality ticket" quite easily, but they are starting at $1250/ticket for the group stage around here and then move to $1900 for 1/16 and $2500 for 1/8 of the final...so from $2.5K to $5K for two people. Crazy!
Let me know, guys, if tickets have better availability in EU or anywhere else.
I actually have an old friend who is "working" for the FIFA, i have worked with his bestie 15 years ago, i think they might still be in touch.
That's the good news. The bad news is that i have to overcome the huge shame and guilt i feel, because i haven't contacted my ex-coworker since back then, although we were close friends, for many years before, when we were also hacking in a well known defacement-group together. Then there was this woman. She was showing strong narcissistic behavior in her preceding relationship, left her ex in a mentally bad condition. My friend was dating her and then they were living together. I didn't know how to (re)act and tell him about my twisted feelings, and that inner conflict straight out overwhelmed me.
It's an ASD/ADHD thing, but i didn't know anything about it at that time of my life. Sometimes we just vanish from relationships, for reasons we don't even fully understand ourselves. I thought i was a normal computer/tech geek back then. Well, i was right with the geek, at least.
I can't promise you anything, but i will make a try to contact him on behalf of knowing about the ways and chances to get tickets. Also because of my own curiosity about FIFA internals. FIFA is quite big, but i know that one guy can visit any FIFA game on the planet, whenever he wants to. I remember him saying the constant travelling was pissing him off a bit, so maybe he even doesn't work for them anymore.
Realistically, maybe give it a 10% chance that i will be able to get to useful results.
EDIT: Yes, and it's also time to look how things went, regarding the woman. It's also a chance to explain to him why i didn't show up in 15 years.
EDIT2:

i originally wanted to reply to the black friday techie question, but the FIFA topic hit a nerve and distracted me, so...
I bought a coffee-maker (40% off), a pci-e card, a 10 gbps USB cable, a new audio interface with 3rd party monitor correction integration (Universal Audio Apollo Twin X with Sonicworks SoundID Integration, a few more UAD plugins, a new digital microscale and a power distribution hub for my astronomy rig(s).
By they way: Yesterday i wanted to put out a scope again, finally, and capture a tack sharp image of the Pleiades formation, but the mount got the protection cover blown off by a recent storm, water (from snow and ice) entered some gaps and one axis was stuck/frozen. I have to take care of that with a hair dryer first, and i hope i won't have to clean and grease the two fat bearings. I would have to take half of the thing apart.
I'm off Muscimol for today and it starts to suck to concentrate on anything.Cool...re both the interesting FIFA-related story and the tech (coffee is TECH in my eyes, always

) purchases.
Re not talking to someone for 15 years...we had a 25 year class reunion some time ago and I did not talk to some people in that "group" at least for 20 years or so.
At first, I did not want to go, thought it could be awkward, but then I went, had a good time, and all our student memories came back and I felt comfortable with those people.
One specific reason i am mentioning this is because the guy who organized this died just about one year later, very unexpectedly.
I was glad that we revisited the "old times" before it happened.