Xmas

It's Christmas today, so Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!
Joyeux Noël!
Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia!
Feliz Navidad!
Feliz Natal!
Buon Natale!
Froche Weinachten!
And other languages too!

Mon cou

J'ai mal au cou. Je pense que je dormais bizzarement (oui, avec 2 z's - très bizarre). Je me dis, dans la salle de bain ce matin, en français, que j'avais mal au cou et que c'est probable que j'ai fait quelque chose bizarre avec mon cou, et j'ai remarqué qu'il y a deux mots en français qui sont presque même, surtout pour moi (n'oubliez pas que je le trouve difficile de differentier entre 'dessus' et 'dessous'). Cou et cul. Donc, quand j'ai pensé que j'ai fait quelque chose avec mon cou....

Tapeworms

Created by Oatmeal

Hello Opera

I've been using Opera for about an hour now because I got fed up with Firefox's instability issues and I can't bring myself to use IE because I still have a soul. I like Opera so far; the speed dial thing is a good idea, and it seems a lot faster and more stable than FF. I still have the issues with typing that I'm sure I've complained about before, but that's a computer issue and not a browser problem (which I know because it happens in all programs, even notepad). The pages in Opera don't stall and pause while trying to scroll down through them and they scroll much faster too.
I haven't noticed too many other differences, but overall I'm happy with Opera so far.
It's a shame that it has come to this with Firefox because I still like it and its concept.

Ten Weekend/Ce Week End

Jadę na plaże. Lubię bardzo jechać na plaże i jadę do Noosy, i myślę że Noosa jest najlepsza plaża w Australii. Będę mieszkać w mieszkaniu mojej matka, więc ja wiem dobrze gdzie muszę jechać bo byłem tamte duży razy. Jadę na plaże z K'ą, z I'ą, z R'ą, i może z N'em i z K'em, ale nie wiem teraz jeśli K i N jadą też z nas. R musi mi mówić.

Je vais à la plage. J'aime bien aller à la plage et je vais à Noosa, qui est ma plage préférée en Australie. Je resterai dans l'appartement de ma mère, donc je sais bien où je dois aller parce que j'y suis allé plusiers fois. J'y vais avec K, I, R et peut-être avec N et K, mais maintenant je ne sais pas si N et K y vont avec nous. R doit me dire.

X-wing en tickets de métro

This is a great use for some used Parisian metro tickets. I assume it'd work for others too, as I'm pretty sure the Strasbourg tickets were the same dimensions. I used a Navigo, but I had enough visitors who used many many single tickets that I could have had an entire squadron!

10,000

Visitor number 10,000 was a random googler, I think. This person found my blog through a google search for "french dance craze 2009", which led to my post "The Latest Dance Craze in France". The visit was also done on an apple mac, so I feel a little dirty* about that. The visitor in question is in Australia, and the ISP routed through Sydney, with Telstra, but with Telstra, the location mentioned isn't always the location of the person (actually, it seems to be rather rare that the two locations match).
Oh well, I've had my 10,000th visitor, but it wasn't someone I know. Szkoda.
Better luck next time an arbitrary milestone comes up.

*not in a good way

DVD's

I went DVD browsing today because I was recently given some gift vouchers to celebrate an integer number of times that the earth has passed around the sun since the day I was born. I spent most of my time looking in the foreign films section of a well-known electronics, music and DVD store. I'd like to purchase some DVD's to add to my collection, but I'm not sure what I should get. I saw The Lemon Tree for just under $30, which is a film that I really enjoyed when I saw it at the cinema, and while it's definitely a film that I'd like to own, I'm not sure if it's one that I'd watch over and over again, which kind of defeats the purpose of owning it, other than just having it in my collection. It's one that I'd recommend and lend to friends though, because I think other people would like it. As for an English language film, I've often considered buying Little Miss Sunshine, though I know other people who own this film already, so I could feasibly borrow it whenever the mood to watch it struck. Other films that I'd like to buy, but which weren't in stock at the particular store where I was browsing include La Double Vie de Veronique (directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, who also directed Les Trois Couleurs), The Lives of Others, and Goodbye Lenin*. Are there any other good films out there that I should buy but that I've forgotten about? I'm sure I've seen some movies in the past few years that I've wanted to buy, but that I've forgotten about now. Suggestions welcome.

*For some reason, I thought I already owned this one, but it's not in my collection.

Horchata

I like this song (Horchata by Vampire Weekend):

A recent milestone

Another arbitrary milestone number was reached recently - this blog's 10,000th visitor. I don't know yet who it was, and I can't be bothered looking it up at the moment because I'm tired, but I'll work it out soon. Hopefully it wasn't just a random google searcher.

Chciałem pisąć po polsku

Pracuję ten tydzień. Kiedy to był 11 godzina, w poniedziałku, moje uczeniów czytali coś, ale wiedziałem że oni nie lubili czytać, bo to jest trudny, ale też myślę że to jest ważny. Tak nudził mi się, bo nic nie mogę robić kiedy oni czytą, więc ja czytałem też, ale po polsku. Chciałem jeżeli pamiętałem ten język.
Nie mam egzaminy lub lekcji w uniwersitecie bo zdałem swoje ostatni egzamin na 14-go listopada, i nie będę mieć lekcji do lutego lub marca. Lubię bardzo być na wakacji. Bardzo lubię.
Chciałbym jechać gdzieś na wakacji ale nie wiem gdzie, i nie wiem kiedy. Może w lutym? Albo gdzie?
Teraz jestem śpiący bo myślę że będę iść spać. Mam nadzieje że swoja wakacja nie jest tylko w Brisbanie. Oczywiście, będę jechać na plażę bo teraz nikt nie mieszka w mieszkaniu mojej matki, ale też chcę jechać gdzieś. Może do Sydneja lub Melbournia. Byłem w Melbourniu ten rok, ale mam kolegi tamte. Też mam kolegi w Sydnejach i ostatni raz że byłem tamt, był w 1997 roku. To jest trudna pytania. Nie wiem.
Idę spać.

Another return

I had another episode of digestive pyrotechnics last night. I felt a bit bloated and thought it was just a gassy thing, so I forced myself to burp. Instead of a pressure-releasing belch of gas, my mouth was filled with the half-digested remains of dinner. I proceeded immediately to the toilet where I thoroughly emptied the contents of my stomach as an offering to the porcelain god. Interestingly, the potato casserole/bake thingo tasted pretty good on the way up, unlike my souvlaki from the other day. The only thing that concerned me was the complete lack of carrot bits in the expelled mass. I realise that there was no carrot involved in the meal, but one still expect bits of carrot to appear in any and all samples of spew. I wonder if it's a sign of the apocalypse.
Apocalypse or not, I felt much better afterwards.

2nd time round isn't as good

I bought a souvlaki on Wednesday at uni, from the souvlaki shop in the newly-renovated main refec. It looks pretty spiffy actually (the new refec, not just the souvlaki shop). The souvlaki I chose was lamb and haloumi, which sounded like a nice combination, and which was a tasty combination. I enjoyed eating it. Later that afternoon, after I'd well and truly finished lunch, my body, and in particular my stomach, felt a bit off, so I made my way to the room with the plumbing facilities and proceeded to encounter the souvlaki again, which had decided to do a u-turn in my stomach and leap out again through my mouth. I'm not sure if the food itself was to blame, or if I was sick due to other factors (two of the people I live with had similar experiences just a few days prior, with completely different food), but I now feel a bit adverse to purchasing lunch again from the souvlaki shop.
For those wondering, the souvlaki looked significantly different on the way up to how it looked on the way down, but I was sure it was the same souvlaki because I hadn't eaten anything else in the meantime. It didn't taste as good the second time around either, so I doubt the accuracy of a description of bulemia I read recently; Bulemia: Twice the taste, none of the calories.
I don't think it's quite 'twice' the taste. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the second time round, the taste is actually rather unpleasant regardless of what the taste was like on the first pass.

Chomp

I wish Australia would realise that chocolate is a viable breakfast food. I really miss, and have a craving for a bowl tonight, special K with dark chocolate flakes. We have a crappy version here, which is special K with chocolate-coated flakes, but it's not the same thing and it doesn't taste near as good. It seems to me that it would be easier for the company to produce the version with chocolate flakes than that with the chocolate-coated flakes too. Everyone's a winner. But alas, no, chocolate makes things look unhealthy here (even though there are health benefits of a small amount of dark chocolate) so people screw up their noses.

A change from my usual style

I usually rant about public transport here because it's usually crap. Because of this, I thought I'd mention one aspect of Brisbane's public transport system that I like; the busway and green bridge*. Thanks to this combination, and the frequency of the 139 and 169 buses, if I drive or get driven to the nearest busway station, I can be at uni within 20mins of leaving home.
Then I get to walk past the pond and look at the ducks and turtles and other creatures.


*Not its real name

Black and WTF

This website was sent to me recently, and it's definitely worth a browse every now and then. Enjoy.

New GoCard

My GoCard hadn't yet turned up, and I doubt it will now. It was unfortunate, but shit happens. I bought another one to replace it, but I only have the crappy Brisbane Transport plastic case to keep it in instead of my leather Disneyland pouch. I'll call the transport people in a few days, but I'm not holding my breathe waiting for it. It's actually annoying that I can't just keep my GoCard in my wallet like other people can, because the chip in my GoCard will apparently interfer with the chip in my student ID card. I'm not sure what they'll do to each other, but I don't want to screw either of them up.

Lab Safety Video

All lab safety videos should be like this one:

Lost my Go Card

I had an annoying day yesterday. I left my Go Card on the bus, along with the black leather disney card pouch I kept it in. I got to the door of the bus, and couldn't find it in my pockets or the pouches on my backpack, and the bus driver was getting annoyed, so I thought I'd just get off the bus and pay the fine for not swiping off, but then once off the bus, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I assume I must have dropped it under the seat I was in or something like that. I had about $20 credit still on it too, plus the deposit for the card. Grrr.

Swiss Cows

Les vaches en Suisse chantent bien.
Krów w Szwajcarii dobrze śpiewać.

Do Fryzjera

Il faut que j'aille au coiffeur. Mes cheveux sont longues, donc je pense depuis quelque temps que je devrais y aller, mais aujourd'hui j'ai travaillé chez gv et une de mes collegues m'a dit que mes cheveux la rappellent des Beatles. Donc, il faut que j'aille au coiffeur.
Mais quel couleur cette fois?

Ontplof

I like this sentence: My tepels ontplof met vreugde.

It's amusing in English, but to me, it sounds funny in Afrikaans. "Ontplof" means "explode", which is the word I particularly like. ("Vreugde" means "delight" for those trying to guess the meaning of the sentence.)

Je deteste le 170

I hate certain aspects of the Brisbane public transport system. Especially route 170, which is the route that I need to take to get from the busway to home*. It's invariably late, or delayed, or the drivers become geographically embarrassed, and I always seem to just miss one whenever I arrive at the busway. Yesterday, I got off my 139 at the busway to see the 170 still listed on the electronic signboard, but alas, it had already been past and the sign was just slow at updating itself. Knowing that this is a half-hourly bus service, I sat down and waited until the next one, expecting it to arrive in about 30mins. This didn't happen. The next 170 appeared on the sign, about 30mins later, but didn't show up. I think the driver had taken a wrong turn or something, judging by the way the passengers commented when she finally took a correct turn at a later stage. This bus finally showed up at the busway stop 26mins late. I had to wait 56 minutes at the busway for a service that runs every 30 minutes. I really don't think that's acceptable. It's no wonder people in Brisbane own cars because they can't rely on the public transport system.


* except during peak hours when I can take the 171, 178 or 176

Double geek

Star Trek meets Lord of the Rings.
I'm not sure where to even start with this. The lyrics, the choreography. Just watch it, it's worth it:

Impressive sand artist

This is cool:
It is apparently the winner of Ukraine's talent tv show thing, and worth watching, even if it is 8 and a half minutes long. The artist used a light table and sand to depict the German invasion of Ukraine in WW2.



(Found on the stranger)

Not my favourite author

I've read Angels And Demons and The Da Vinci Code, and while I liked the basic plot, I never thought they were particularly well-written books. It's good to see someone shares my dislike of Brown's writing style:
Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences
Some of them are amusingly bad. I'd like to add to number 6's reason for being inept; How does studying the migration patterns of manta rays help with entanglement physics?

An Fhidil

Haigh didil didil,
An cat is an fhidil,
Léim an bó thar an ré,
An madra beag donn,
Dhéin gáire le fonn,
Is d'imigh an spúnóg ar strae.

:-)

Co robię? Что я делаю?

Jestem w domu teraz. Oglądam "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" kto jest dobry, i lubię bardzo bo to jest bardzo śmieszny. Czekam mój kolega kto będzie zadzwonić mnie dzisiaj lub jutro bo chcemy jechać na plażę. On jest z Wiednia. Plaża że ja lubię jest Noosa i nie wiem jeśli mój kolega był w Noosa, albo jeśli to będzie jego pierwszy raz. On mieszkał w Brisbane na sześć miesięcy.
Dzisiaj, będę jechać z psami do parku psów, ale jeszcze nie wiem o ktorej. Może wkrótce.
Nie poszedłem do uniwersytetu dzisiaj bo nie mam lekcji wtórek, ale mam dużo środa.
Chciałbym napisać w języku rosyjskim, ale nie wiem czy to będzie dobre tłumaczenie.

Я сейчас дома. Я смотрю "Never Mind The Buzzcocks:" Кто это хорошо, и мне это нравится, потому что это очень и очень смешно. Ждать мой друг, который будут называть меня сегодня или завтра, потому что мы хотим, чтобы идти на пляж. Он родом из Вены. Пляж, что мне нравится это Noosa, а я не узнаю, что мой друг был в Noosa, или, если это будет его первый раз. Он жил в Брисбене в течение шести месяцев.
Сегодня, я пойду с собаками в парке собаку, но я не знаю, о чем. Возможно, в ближайшее время.
Я не ходил в университет сегодня, потому что я классы вторник, но у меня есть много среды.
Я хотел бы писать на русском языке, но я не знаю, будет ли это хороший перевод.

I'm learning

Last Friday, in a lecture, we learnt that it's a bad idea to take a chicken on a date to a movie because chickens don't like watching movies, so the date won't go well. It'd be better to take an animal like an elephant because they like movies.

I wonder if that'll be on the test....

Pogoda jest dziwna i ciepła w Brisbane

I nie lubię ta pogoda. To jest sierpień, ale pogoda była 30 stopien dzisiaj! To jest zima Brisbanska! Będę pisać po angelsku bo nie wiem jak mówić wszystko po polsku.

Yes, as the title of this post says, the weather is weird and warm in Brisbane. I don't mind warm weather, and today would have been a very nice day, if it had've occurred in January. It is officially winter here, spring doesn't start until the 1st or 21st of September, depending on how you decide to measure it. It's winter - winter is cold, that's the definition of winter, but the temperature reached at least 30 degrees today, which is ridiculous. I hope it's just a temporary abnormality, and that it doesn't continue to get hotter and hotter from now until mid-January, because that would be incredibly painful and I'd try to leave and move somewhere for the summer. Today was the sort of weather that makes one want to go to the beach, but everyone knows that the beach is a summer place, or at least spring. Going to the beach because it's hot and it'd be nice to take a dip in winter is just a silly thing that Brits and Victorians do. I'm neither.

Et maintenant en français. Oui, comme je viens de dire, le temps fait bizarre et chaud à Brisbane. J'aime assez bien quand il fait chaud, et il aurait fait beau aujourd'hui, si on était en janvier. C'est officialement l'hiver ici, la printemps commence le premier ou le 21 septembre (ça depends). C'est l'hiver, et en hiver, il fait froid, c'est la definition d'hiver, mais il faisait 30 degrees aujourd'hui, et c'est ridicule. J'éspère que c'est temporaire, et qu'il ne continue pas à faire plus et plus chaud jusqu'à mi-janvier, parce que ça serait trop dur et j'essayerais de partir et demenager quelque part pour l'été. Aujourd'hui, le temps me faisait penser à aller à la plâge, mais tout le monde sait que la plâge est une place d'été, ou au moins de la printemps. Aller à la plâge parce qu'il fait chaud et parce que ça serait une bonne idée de faire de la natation, est une chose bizarre que les Rosbifs et les Victoriens font. Je ne suis ni l'un ni l'autre.

Bienvenu

Un ami m'a dit, dans un émail, qu'il va bientot venir me voir. Il est déjà allé en Australie il y a quelques ans, et il veux voir ses amis ici encore une fois. Je lui connais depuis la première fois que je lui ai rencontré, une évenement qui s'est passé quand j'étais en Europe.
Bon, il va voyager en Australie, bientot - dans le mois de septembre, et on est déjà août!
Donc, si c'est possible pour un ami, c'est possible pour beaucoup d'amis. Vous, les gens qui habitent en France, je vous exige! Venez en Australie!
Quelqu'un veux venir me voir en janvier ou fevrier 2010?

Essence sans plomb

I bought petrol yesterday because the petrol gauge in the car suggested that the car was going to be very hungry if I didn't. I noticed that petrol is a lot more expensive when I pay for it out of my own bank account rather than when I use someone else's credit card. I prefer it when someone else pays for my petrol*. Thankfully it's a small car with a small engine, so its fuel consumption is relatively low.


* This is usually the case because I just occasionally borrow a car rather than have sole use of one, but I have sole use of one at the moment because the usual driver has temporarily acquired another vehicle, but the downside of having permanent vehicular use is that I have to pay for it.

C'est la fin d'hiver

Winter's coming to a close here. There are many signs that point to this; the Ekka's over, it's warm enough at uni to wear tshirts (though it gets a bit chilly in the evenings and early mornings), I don't feel the need to turn my room heater on when I get dressed in the morning, and it's still light when I give the dogs their chicken wings for dinner (which happens at about 5:30pm, and it used to be dark then).

On an unrelated note, my sandshoes contain sand. I think this should be attributed to the fact that I wore them at the beach last Wednesday and not because they have the word "sand" in their name, though I guess the latter is a possible reason - one data point is not enough to claim a general trend or causal relationship either way.

Lunettes

I think it's time I firmly closed my mouth on the hard metal projectile. I need to get glasses. There I said it. Well, wrote it. The problem now is getting a round tuit. The decision to get glasses requried several steps in order for it to become a reality; steps like going to an optometrist to see how bad my eyes are. It'll possibly happen before 2010.
The downside of getting glasses is that I run the risk of looking like a nerd. Maybe I could think about contacts instead.

Key saga

I am currently with car (avec voiture) because my brother is on a job where his company provides him with a car (he has to drive to somewhere near Dalby), and therefore doesn't need his own car during this time. This is wonderfully convenient for me - especially when travelling home from uni.
Anyway, this car only has one key associated with it because long long ago the other key (the master) was lost, rendering us with only the spare key. When I got home from uni today, I cleverly locked the car with the key still in the ignition, but switched off (I wasn't locked out of home because I have my house keys on a separate keyring). I only discovered this problem when I went to go out again in order to purchase more milk, and after a search of the house to find the key went to check the car. Luckily, the car is in RACQ, so I called them for help, and after being told that it would be up to an hour's wait, the RACQ guy turned up after just 20mins, and opened the door for me in just 1 minute.
I think we really need to get a spare cut, as this would be rather inconvenient if it happened when running late or something.

In other news, my fingers smell like garlic. I'm guessing that this has less to do with the key saga than the fact that I've also cooked dinner, and that involved crushing garlic.

Network amusement

I wish I had an unsecured wireless network that my neighbours were trying to steal, just so that I could do this.

Careers Expo

There was an Engineering-specific careers expo at uni today, so I went along to check it out just out of curiosity to see what was available. Unfortunately, the expo was smaller than I'd hoped and there wasn't a huge variety of companies there to talk to. Especially not when you removed the companies that only wanted mining and/or chemical engineers (several petroleum and mining companies).
Other than that, there were a few to talk to who were interested in hiring electrical engineers, but the number of companies that I'd be willing to work for was significantly lower as most of the companies looking for electrical engineers were involved with either destroying the planet, destroying people, or both. I don't want to work for a company that thinks coal is the way forward, nor do I want to work for a company where my best work would be related to the number of people it could efficiently kill. Because of this, the expo was a little disappointing, but I know that there are lots and lots of companies around, and those present today represented just a small fraction of what's on offer.

Jadę do plaży dzisiaj

Yes, you read that correctly - I'm going to the beach today. I've wanted to get to the beach ever since I returned to Australia, but a combination of being slack, being busy, and other things has meant that I've been back here for about 6 months now, and I'm only just going now. I should have gone right after returning as far as weather goes, because it's now in the middle of winter here, and I'm not planning on swimming at all (je ne peux pas faire de la natation en hiver parce que je ne suis pas Breton). In spite of a planned absence of swimming, it'll be nice to see the beach, and also part of the hinterland up there, which is another area I like that I haven't been to since at least early 2007. For those who'd like to check on a map, or otherwise google the location, I'm going to a beach called Mooloolaba, which is on the Sunshine Coast (the nicer of the two coasts near Brisbane, the other being the Gold Coast).

Holidays are over already

Semester two starts tomorrow. This means I'll have less free time and I'll have more assignments and exams to worry about. My timetable isn't very nice this semester either - I have only 1 day off each week, so I'll be out there almost every weekday (including the free day during assignment weeks, I'm assuming).

I had plans to accomplish things during the holidays, but unfortunately most of them haven't happened. The main plan for this break was to format my hard drive and reinstall the things I wanted to have, as I think my computer could benefit from a full format, which would hopefully get rid of its current issue. I never got around to it though, so I'll have to leave it now for a time when I have enough time to spare, which means it probably won't happen until about late November or December (ie, after semester 2's finished). This task, and the others that I didn't get done, have been left in the to-do pile due to more work than I'd expected and a general lack of motivation combined with a sufficiently high level of laziness.

I'll do it when I get a round tuit. (I used to have a round tuit, but I don't know what happened to it)

Unsolicited religion irritates me

A couple of Jehova's Witnesses knocked on my door this morning, and I'd already opened it when I realised what they were there for. They wanted me to take a Watchtower and read it, and said something along the lines of racism being endemic in society today, and so I should join their faith. Apparently they felt that their religion wasn't racism. I told them that I didn't think Cthe bible was against racism considering it condones slavery, as long as the slaves come from neighbouring countries, which is fairly racist for several reasons (aren't those from other countries good enough to be our slaves?). Anyway, one of them tried to tell me that while it did say that in the bible, it was using a different definition of slavery. Umm.. yeah, right. Then when I said that it was the same definition of slavery that we use today, he said that it also said that the slaves had to be treated well and they could only be taken as slaves if the slave had entered the profession of slavery voluntarily. Now, while it's true that one, back then, was allowed to choose to become a slave, it wasn't the only means by which one could enter the trade. Taking people from neighbouring countries as slaves was allowed as one of the spoils of war, and that doesn't sound voluntary, in my opinion.
I also told them that I preferred science and fact, as opposed to fairy tales. Our conversation didn't last much past that point.
One thing that amused me in all of this was that the first one to speak didn't seem to know much about the bible at all, and didn't know that slavery was even mentioned in it, let alone condoned. So, that led me to believe that I, as an atheist*, know more about her bible than she does.


* atheist = person capable of thinking for him/herself. (just a short vocab lesson for you)

9000 has passed!

My blog has seen its 9000th visitor. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of my regular readers, just a random from America who found my blog by doing a google search for "awesome pillow".
Oh well, for those of you who were hoping to take the 9000 honour, better luck next time an arbitrary threshold comes around.

On another note, my dogs are looking at me and making me feel guilty for not walking them today. I wish I could, but I really don't have time. :-(

Woof

Je suis toujours ici. J'ai travaillé aujourd'hui, c'était pas mal, parce que j'aime bien avoir d'argent mais egalement, j'aime bien rester à ma chambre quand il fait froid aux matins.
Après que je sois rentré chez moi, j'ai promené les chiennes qui avaient passé toute la journée à la maison (sauf quand ma mère les a promené ce matin). Elles aiment vachement les promenes, comme presque tous les chiens, donc elles sont contentes ce soir. À la fin du promene, elles ont trouvé un chat qui habite chez nos voisins (mais à l'autre coté de la rue) mais je n'avais pas vu ce chat, donc je ne savais pas qu'il y était. Mes chiennes voulaient rencontrer (ou attaquer, je ne sais pas quel) ce chat, donc elles essayaient de l'approcher mais le chat a décidé d'attaquer un de mes chiennes, et ses grippes ont frappé le nez de Molly. :-(
Molly va assez bien, mais il y a un petit peu de sang sur son nez où les grippes l'ont touché.
Généralement, je n'aime pas les chats.

On another note, the count is up to 8992, so only a few more before 9000!

9000

The 8900th visitor to this blog has just passed, so the race is on to see who's going to get the prestige of being the 9000th person!

On your marks... get set... GO!

I'm still here

I've been very recently chastised for letting this blog slip into disuse. I'm still here, but I haven't been blogging recently. I'll have to catch up over the next few days to fill you in on my past month or two.

I'm still here

I haven't forgotten my blog, and I know it's been ages since I last posted anything, but my excuse is that I've been busy and not a lot of blogworthy things have happened.

Well, actually, some things have, so I'll write about them now:

I'm going to be spending almost a week in Melbourne after my exams are over. I'm excited about going, though I'll have to try to refrain from breathing given that Melbourne is Australia's swine flu capital at the moment.

We've (well, Mum, really) have acquired two new dogs. They're both beagles and were "rescued" through the beagle rescue association. They're sisters, from the same litter, so they know each other very well. They've settled in really well, especially considering they've been here just under a week, which is a good sign.

Aside from that, it's the last teaching week of semester, which means that I've got a couple of assignments due in this Friday, which I should be working on now instead of blogging, and then next week's swotvac, followed by 2 weeks of exams (though my exams are both in the first week of the examination period).

You'll have to click.

Ok, I tried to add a picture here via an html link but it didn't work, blogger cropped the image and removed the funny bit, so click here to see the image instead.

Who watches this?

There's a tv show on one of the Foxtel* channels at the moment (8:30pm, Thursday night) called "Hot Girls in Dangerous Places". It sounds like a televised version of a soft-core porn calendar, and I can't imagine it being blessed with a particularly interesting plot.
In almost prime-time? What sort of demographic are they targetting?

* Foxtel is one of the pay tv providers in Australia, for those non-Australians out there.

Icky

My nose and sinuses have once again managed to surprised me tonight with the amount of fluid they're able to produce and release.

Pronunciation mistake

I was speaking in French today with a French lass from my course when I mentioned, in French, that I am a citizen of the European Union thanks to my Irish grandmother. However, I was a bit lazy with my pronunciation of the word "citizen" (citoyen) and so this lass thought that I'd said something else:

I wanted to say: "Je suis citoyen de l'Union Européenne".
But she heard: "Je suis citroën de l'Union Européenne".

hmmm...

More on the rant

I forgot to mention that the guy I spoke to at Optus had a problem pronouncing my name. At first he had it correct, until he asked me to spell it in order to verify the account, and from then on he pronounced my name as you'd pronounce the past participle of the verb "to see".
Feckin' eejit!

Ah Fiddlesticks!

Shit, it's just too stupid! I can't believe how they can be so stupid at Optus. Mum called them to change the credit card details, but they lost the new numbers. Twice. So, she called them for the third time on Friday, but today, they decided to disconnect us because they thought that we hadn't paid.
I knew that this was the problem, and I knew that it as at their end of the connection but all the same, the guy who I spoke to told me that I had to do a lot of things to verify that it wasn't my problem, and he wouldn't listen to me when I was trying to explain, so I did everything that he told me to and nothing worked. I was right, as always.
Finally, he decided to look at their end of the connection and he easily found that something stupid had been done over there.
After speaking for 34 minutes, my connection works again.
During all of this, I was wondering why the internet connection wasn't working, but the tv was working perfectly, and we pay for them together, as a package... so if we haven't paid for one, then we haven't paid for the other either... this is weird, isn't it?

(J'ai déjà écrit en français)

Zut alors!

Merde, c'est trop stupide! Je ne crois pas comment ils peuvent être si stupide chez optus. Ma mère les a appellé pour changer les détails de la carte de crédit, mais ils ont perdu les nouveaux numéros. Deux fois. Donc, elle les a appellé pour la troisième fois vendredi, mais aujourd'hui, ils ont dédidé de couper notre connexion parce qu'ils pensaient que nous n'avions pas payé.
Je savais que c'était le problème, et je savais que c'était à leur coté du connextion, mais quand même le mec avec qui j'ai parlé m'a dit que je devais faire beaucoup de choses pour verifier que ce n'était pas mon problème, et il ne m'écoutait pas quand j'essayais d'expliquer, donc je faisais tout ce qu'il m'a dit et rien ne marchait. J'avais raison, comme toujours.
Enfin, il a décidé de regarder son coté du connexion et il a trouvé facilement qu'on avait fait quelque chose stupide là.
Après avoir parlé pendant 34 minutes, la connexion marche à nouveau.
Pendant tout ça, je me demandais pourquoi la connexion d'internet ne marchait pas, mais le télé marchait parfaitment, et nous payons pour les deux dans un abonnement pour les deux.. donc si nous n'avons pas payé pour un, nous n'avons pas payé pour l'autre... c'est chelou, n'est-ce pas?

(I'll write an English translation of this rant soon)

Qu'est-ce que tu racontes?

Il pleut. Deszcz pada. It's raining.

In fact, the whole weekend's been fairly wet here, which seems to be the case for the Easter weekend in Brisbane, regardless of when the equinox says Easter should occur. It put a bit of a dampener on yesterday's New Farm Park picnic plans, but the indoor picnic was fun nonetheless.

Aside from this weekend, which is 4-days long, thanks to Friday and Monday being public holidays here, I've been pretty busy. Two very time-consuming assignments that were due on Thursday meant that the week/10 days prior to last Thursday were pretty well cosumed by uni work.

I've also been aware for some time that I really need to visit an optometrist so that I can get two pieces of glass held in place by a metal and/or plastic frame in order to be able to read stuff that's printed on the whiteboards at uni. It's really quite annoying not being able to see clearly anymore.

Now I have a week off uni to relax and work and study for the test I have during the first week back. Hmmm... some holiday...

Phone Update

I am once again using a Nokia E66. I took mine in to be repaired as it was under warranty, but Nokia were unable to repair it, or it wasn't cost-effective to repair, so they gave me a new replacement phone instead. I still have the original battery and back cover, which is normal in this situation. I'm glad to have a new phone - another difference I've found is that the new one's keypad is a little more responsive, which is good; my old one sometimes refused to acknowledge a "press and hold" on the 7 key, which is necessary if you want to write a 7 without changing the dictionary. This came up a bit consider my uni student number contains a 7 and I needed to use it each time I signed into the uni's wifi system with the phone.

So, I'm happy with my phone again because I have a working E66. I'd still like to install a dictionary for predictive text in French though.

Mon Portable

I finally got around to taking my mobile into the Nokia care centre so that they can repair it. It's under warranty, and they guy who I talked to seemed to be sure that the issue would be covered under warranty, so with any luck I'll have my phone back, and working as good as new, on Friday, or failing that, early next week.

I've backed up all the data and contact details, so I don't envisage losing anything on that front.

Je veux ranter*

En fait, je dois ranter*. Il faut que je rante.
Je me demande pourquoi quelque gens pensent qu'il est necessaire de prendre l'ascenseur quand on ne veut monter ou descendre qu'un étage. Surtout dans les bâtiments comme GPS** (à la fac) où il n'y a pas assez d'ascenseurs, donc on est obligé d'attendre quelque temps. Je ne peux pas dire combien de fois j'y attendais quelque minutes avec quelqu'un qui voulait aller au troisième étage du deuxième étage (je vais souvent au sixième pour un cours, et l'entrée principale du bâtiment est au deuxième). Je suis certain qu'on peut monter les escaliers au pied pour arriver au troisième beaucoup plus vite qu'on peut y aller à l'ascenseur. (Bien sur je pense qu'on peut prendre l'asc quand on est invalide)
Mais normalement, je crois que ça, c'est stupide. Les escaliers sont juste à coté des ascenseurs dans GPS. Peut-être c'est pour ça que beaucoup d'australiens sont grosses - ils ont peur d'exercises.


* ranter = to rant. C'est un mot français, desormais. C'est une verbe regulière. Ranter, je rante, tu rantes, vous rantez, j'ai ranté, tu ranteras, vous rantiez, nous rantions, il ranterait, etc...
** GPS = General Purpose South

What is "cold", really?

I woke up this morning at 6am and felt a bit cold. Yes, cold. I looked at the thermometer in my room only too see that the temperature was a frosty 23degrees celcius. I can't believe, after living through a couple of European winters, that I'd feel a bit chilly at 23degrees. I think it must have been due to the humidity or something, as 23 should be a rather pleasant temperature.

Bah, cold is subjective.

In other news...

I'm no longer red and splotchy :-)

My poor phone

I have only had my phone for a matter of mere weeks, but the first drop was bound to come sooner or later.
Yes, I dropped my phone at uni yesterday while I was extricating it from my pocket in order to read a text message that I'd received. It only dropped from a height of my pocket, so while I was annoyed at dropping it and I noticed that there were a few marks on the top caused by the fall, I was under the impression that it hadn't adversely affected its operation. I used it to send text messages and I tested the gps system while still at uni, and then connected via wifi to the net after I got home.

However, this morning I replied to a text message which I hadn't noticed receiving last night and about 5 minutes after sending it, my phone switched itself off. It still had about a third of the battery power remaining, so I thought that it was odd. Even odder, when I tried to switch it back on, it flatly refused to do so - the power button seems to have been damaged at some point. This issue has remarkably reduced the functionality of my phone, as I'm sure you can understand, and to have a phone today, I was forced to revert to my old one.

This is frustrating for many reasons, not least because it's the first time I've ever had a phone of any significant value - all my previous phones were either absolute bottom of the range, or second to bottom of the range, and I dropped all of them countless times, some of them even down flights of stairs, and it never resulted in anything more than a scratch or dent in the casing. So now I'm faced with an expensive almost-brandnew phone that doesn't work because of a small tumble. Is it Nokia's policy now to make phones that are so incredibly weak? All but one of my previous phones were Nokias and they were strong. Maybe it's only the expensive "quality" range that is weak. Or maybe I should have stuck with Sony Ericssons, like my most recent handset.

Red and Splotchy

I'm all red and splotchy tonight thanks to the medicine I took last night. Yay for allergic reactions!

So, I returned to the medical centre and the doctor I saw tonight suggested a different medicine that shouldn't have too many nasty side effects. I will have to remember to stay out of the sun while I'm on them because apparently they make your skin more sensitive, and as most people know, my skin is a whiter shade of white, so it's fairly susceptible to sunburn in normal conditions (ie, I got sunburnt in Wales).

On the plus side, my symptoms have eased and I don't feel as horribly shitty as I did last night or this morning, so hopefully the new meds will work just as well but without the red rash.

As you're all concerned, I feel like I have less pus, phlegm and/or mucous now.

I've got more pus than you

I'm sick. It's official because I went to the doctor and then had a prescription filled. In fact, I'm just after going to the doctor now. I had somehow picked up a throat virus, which apparently weakened my throat and allowed some bacteria to take hold and now I have a bacterial infection. The doctor was amazed by how swollen my glands were and by how much pus there was on my tonsils.

I have some medicine to deal with this situation now, which is a bonus, as it hurts to talk, swallow and respire, which are pretty much all the functions that a throat performs.

A post from uni

This is my first post from my new phone. I'm currently sitting in the building at uni called GP South, which is a rather unimaginative name for a building considering it means General Purpose South. It's one of the engineering buildings, and specifically the one which contains the electrical engineering department, so I'll be spending a fair amount of time here over the next few years. It's also one of the best locations for the uni's wifi. The area I'm sitting in at the moment is supposed to be for quiet study, and I'm being very quiet at the moment. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the group of undergrad students sitting at the next table whose conversation has convinced me that they're complete idiots. I was hoping that their presence here was going to be temporary, if not fleeting, but they've decided to skip their next lecture. I think my presence here will be short-lived now.

Tea, Thé, Herbata, Çay

A small box of english breakfast tea somehow materialised in our cupboard. I recently tried a cup of this tea, which has a rather dubious brand name - Madame Flavour. I was worried that it would be horrid or bland, with a name like that, but it turns out to be full of flavour, so I need to know now where I can source some more of these tea bags. The box is red, so maybe it's communist tea.

Phone questions...

Ok, so I've had my Nokia E66 for just over a week now, and I'm starting to notice things that I'd like to change. Firstly, I have the Australian version of the phone and, unlike my old Sony Ericsson, it doesn't have a French T9 dictionary (my Sony had English, French, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, and Hungarian, I think). I would like to be able to switch between English and French T9 dictionaries when I type sms messages, and emails/messenger conversations online. I don't want to lose the English T9, of course, so I'd like to somehow install a French one alongside it.

Secondly, I've installed fring so that I can easily use msn, skype and google talk easily on the phone when connected to the net. Does anyone know if it's possible to copy a link and open it in a phone browser window? and if so, how do you do it?

That's it for now... I'll add more questions as I discover things that I can't do.

Settings changed

After that last post, I noticed that blogger still thought I was in Paris, so I've now changed the settings accordingly, which will make the timestamps more logical. I didn't write a post at 4:22am this morning, for example.

Awesome Pillow

I want this pillow. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up to something like this?
(found thanks to slog)

You call that a bakery?

I recently went past a bakery here in Brisbane. I looked at the food available, and it was a little depressing. Some of the items looked edible, but on the whole the window display was just a bit boring. I miss the more colourful displays found in the boulangeries of Paris. Not even a proper baguette within cooee of the place, and don't even try to find brioche (well, not at reasonable prices) or tartes aux framboises, or macarons. Gah!

Aurélie et Rafik, il faut que vous me sauviez. Venez ici toute suite! Je vous exige!

J'ai envie d'un nouveau portable.

My current one is getting old and the battery has seen better days.

Right now, I'm leaning towards the Nokia E66 or perhaps the Nokia 6210 Navigator. I'd like an N85* but I don't really want to spend that much on a phone. I want a phone with GPS, and I'd like one with wifi. I looked at the E71, but I don't really want or need a PDA, and I think the keyboard would be a bit annoying, not to mention small and fiddly.
Do any of my faithful readers have an opinion?
I can't get an iphone because Apple is annoying and I have an allergy to Apple products.

* The N96 looks good too, but I've read some bad reviews about it, especially considering the battery life.

Sir Terry

Everyone's favourite author (well, mine anyway) has recently been knighted.

Au revoir Paris

This is my last day in Paris. I'm not exactly happy about leaving, but on the other extremity, it'll be nice to be back in Brisbane to see people there. I'm not looking forward to the trek to the airport, as it will involve transporting baggage, which is heavy, and I know I'll end up with sore shoulders and arms. I hope my arms don't fall off again (they fell off when I took the big box to the post office last Wednesday).

I've also noticed that my flight time (well, CDG to BNE) is 23 hours, rather than the 25 hours that I initially thought it was. Phew... only 23 hours; that's less than a whole day.

Au revoir, mon appart'.

I have about an hour left in my apartment before I bit it farewell and adieu. It isn't the best apartment in the world, and the furniture isn't brilliant, but the location is fantastic, convenient to most places in Paris, and a lot of the surrounding banlieu, thanks to the efficient metro and RER systems. Then, for a short stint (2 nights to be specific) I'll be SDF (Sans Domicile Fixe, or Of No Fixed Abode) before heading to the airport for a short 25hr flight back to the land down under.

In other news, I think this type of sherrif should exist in reality.

Luggage update

Well, I've packed most of my stuff, and I think it's actually going to fit. Maybe in the end, I was a bit overzealous with my postage. Oh well, I prefer it this way to having too much stuff now.

Spring cleaning

Over the last few days, I've been ruthlessly sorting through everything I own, throwing lots and keeping just what I deem necessary. The reason for this is primarily the lack of space I have in my backpack and I need to either make it fit in my bag, throw it out, or give it away. I'm giving some stuff away, but most of the stuff isn't really all that useful. I've actually been rather stressed lately due to my concerns regarding the amount of stuff and the amount of space in my bag, so each time I throw something out, it's a relief because it means one less item that I have to find room for. It's quite therapeutic. I still think packing my bag will be a challenge, and I might have to become even more ruthless, but I'm beginning to think it's possible.

Trop Bientôt

My arms hurt. I have that pain that comes the day after a particularly strenuous activity.

I closed my bank account today, just another thing that highlights my inevitable departure. Quelle dommage. En fait, je n'aimais pas trop bien cette banque parce que je la trouvais très chere, et beaucoup plus cher que necessaire. J'espère que mon argent arrive où je voulais l'envoyer sans problèmes.

Well, I think I've officially run out of time to do anything significant in France now this time around. There are lots of things I wish I'd done, specifically places that I wanted to visit, but kept putting off for another time or another weekend, and now, il ne me reste qu'un weekend, and I can't spend it travelling around the countryside, malheureusement. I'll definitely have to return one day.

Je sais bien que la France me manquera.

The security never ends...

I've heard a security announcement several times in serveral different métro stations around Paris. The announcement is broadcast first in French, then English, followed by Spanish and includes the phrase, in English; "In the interests of terminal security..." and I can't help but ponder this. It's not really a terminal, is it? There are terminals at airports, but not in métro stations. Even the last station on a line is called the "terminus". Unless the word "terminal" in this announcement is used in the sense of "terminal illness", therefore meaning that the security is going to be with us until the end and there's no solution for it.

Bon voyage, mon colis!

I went to the post office today, finished applying a huge amount of tape to my cardboard box, and handed my box over to La Poste, along with 149.20euro, in order to have it transported from Paris to Brisbane. Apparently it might take up to three weeks. I won't hold my breath. I posted a 13kg package from Poland when I left there, and they told me that it would take about 1 month to arrive in Brisbane. I posted it at the end of February and received it in late June. With any luck, La Poste will be a little more efficient. The package I posted today was a little heavier than the 15kg I expected it be, weighing in at 22.48kg. My arms were certainly sore after carrying it from my apartment to the post office, which is fairly close, thankfully. I also discovered that, at 50cm x 50cm x 50cm, my cube is the largest box that La Poste will accept (the regulations state that the sum of the three dimensions must not exceed 150cm).

Start off with some advice

If you plan to post a large amount of stuff, in a large carboard box, it's a very good idea to seal the bottom of the box before putting the stuff that you want to post into the box. In my defence, I wasn't sure that everything would fit, so I was testing it out first before I applied the masking tape. Once everything was neatly inside, I didn't want to remove it, which made taping up the bottom rather difficult, as it required ending the contact between the floor and the bottom of the unsealed box. I managed, and it didn't end up like some slapstick comedy with me lifting the box quickly, allowing everything to escape through the bottom, creating some sort of horrid wreckage with, possibly, a wheel or tyre rolling away into the distance. But none of that happened. I very carefully manhandled my box and I believe I have applied a sufficient amount of tape to maintain this position until the post eventually delivers the carton to me in Australia.

In other news, the bag that I want to take on the plane as cabin luggage is approximately 55x38x23cm and the limit is 55x40x20cm. I think it'll be allowed, sa long as I don't fill it too much, as it's a flexible bag. I hope the ruler I printed is accurate, as I didn't have a ruler, so I downloaded one off the internet and printed it out. I looks pretty good, and I actually suspect that its centimetres err on the side of caution if anything, which is promising for my cabin bag.

Just for the record

And so I don't forget and/or misplace the pieces of paper that I've written them on:

Mae fy hofrenfrad yn llawn llyswennod.
Hoverfraftim ağzına kadar ilan bilgisi ile dalu.
GĦandi id-dingi mimli bil-morini.
Moje vznášadlo je plné úhorov.
Mans kuģis uz pūkainā spilvena pilnsar nēģiem.
Мой коробль на воздушной подушке полний угрей.
мiй корабель на повiтряной подушце повен вугрей.

*edited: I should add that I'll send a prize to anyone who can tell me all the languages mentioned above.

Jesus is like an unpaid babysitter.

This is amusing, I like Ricky Gervais.



(Found via the Stranger)

Delicious dinner and crazy nutcase

I met Beth this evening for a walk through Paris before going to Snax Café to meet other friends, and we became rather peckish during the walk, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. We chose a nice, very reasonably priced, Chinese restaurant in the Chatelet/Les Halles area. It was the third time I've eaten food prepared by this particular restaurant, and all three times the food was delicious (the first time was take-away). However, the main reason I'm writing this post isn't to comment on the quality of the food, but on another patron of this establishment.

Beth and I were happily eating and discussing plans for the weekend, including who would and wouldn't be attending a dinner event she is organising, when a woman who was seated near us and dining alone, looked over at me and for no apparent reason said, rather venomously, "There's nothing for you in the Bible, mister!" and then while we were processing what had actually just happened, looked at Beth and said, "There might be something in the Bible for you!". We were a bit shocked because nothing we'd said up until that point warranted any input from other diners, especially input of that kind. Beth was quicker at recovering from the shock than I was and immediately asked the woman what she meant and why she felt the need to speak to us at all, but the woman then pretended to have difficulties understanding English, assuming that Beth and I were English-only people, so we switched to French (Beth's French is better than mine). After switching to French and asking her what the hell was going on, the mad cow refused to answer us. Beth and I then changed our topic of conversation to bashing Christianity in every way we could think of, while trying to add the word "hell" to every sentence. Beth asked me if I'd like more water, but apologised (loudly) for not being able to turn it into wine.

We left the nutcase to her meal and went on our way, though we were tempted to drop some insults in her general direction, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

Dia duibh

Tá mé ar mhuin na muice! Conas a tá tú? Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? Cá a bhfuil tú?
Bhuel, tá Bearla agam agus níl Gaeilge agam. Níl a fhios agam. Agus tá a fhios agam taim Eireannach.
An raibh a fhios agat, nuair a bhí tu óg ni raibh tu buich na rudai a rinne gach duine duit?
(Tá sé liricí)

Cá bhfuil mo phionta?

Dlaczego nie?

Piszę teraz po polsku bo jem krówki i bo chciałbym pisać coś. Kiedy byłem w Gliwicach, Michał mówił że pub "Coś Innego" skonczył. Byłem w ten pubie dużo razy bo Coś Innego był pub nauczyciela angielskiego w Gliwicach. Ja byłem w ten pubie tylko bo miałem kolegów kto chcieli iść tam. Nie lubiłem bardzo atmosfera puba, bo atmosfera nie była bardzo ciekawa.
Teraz, to jest sklep rowary.

I hate it when this happens

While wandering around Paris today with a friend, I had a great idea for a blog post and I wished I had thought to note down a word or two to remind me of it. Blast!
This is why my posts are fewer in number that they would be in an alternate reality where Sean has a better memory for things like this.

Mon français

Je sais que j'ai bien amélioré mon français depuis que je suis arrivé en France, mais, quand même, je voudrais le parler mieux parce que je sais aussi que je fais des erreurs quand je parle, et ça, je n'aime pas. Mais, il y a quelque jours, je me suis rendu compte quelque chose. Je ne me souviens pas quand ça a commencé, mais j'ai arreté de traduire les conversations, et ça me fait très content. Quand on apprends des langues, on commence toujours par traduire, et c'est une grande amélioration quand on arrete de le faire, et je sais que je le fais toujours quand je parle polonais, même quand j'habitais en Pologne.
Bien que je viens de dire que le niveau de mon français n'est pas aussi bon que je voudrais, je suis content maintenant. Quand même, je dois dire que j'ai peur d'oublier cette langue après arriver en Australie.

Mon trajet

I recently found myself on an aeroplane, which is what happens when one decides to fly instead of drive, walk, ride horses etc. in order to transport oneself from one location to another. In this instance, I was flying from Krakow-Balice in Poland to Paris Orly-Sud in France. My flight was scheduled to take off at 20:10 and land at about 22:25. I checked in on time, after arriving at the airport at 19:00 and standing in the check-in queue for quite sometime, only to be informed that the plane had been delayed. By between 2 and 3 hours. This meant that we didn't take off from Krakow until about 22:40 or 22:45 or so, which was about 20minutes after we were supposed to have landed in Paris. We finally landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport at 01:00, because Orly-Sud was closed, and so we needed to take a detour in order to land. If the RER B had still been operating, this would have been fine and dandy, but the last RER B train from the airport to Paris leaves the airport at 00:53 on Friday and Saturday nights.
By the time we'd collected out luggage and made it on to the buses outside the airport, it was about 1:35 or so.
The airline provided us with a voucher for a restaurant at Krakow-Balice, and free shuttle buses from CDG airport to Orly or Porte Maillot. I took the bus to Porte Maillot and then got a taxi from there because the metro had stopped and I was tired and it's only 12euro from Porte Maillot to Chatelet. It was after 2am when I arrived at Porte Maillot, and I think I got into my apartment at about 2:30am or so.
The airline was nice and helpful, and I understand that problems happen from time to time - this particular problem was caused by a technical fault in the aircraft which meant we had to wait for another plane to be flown to Krakow - but I was exhausted by the time I got home, and didn't sleep well, so now I feel slightly jetlagged even though it was only a 2-hour flight and I didn't cross any time zones. I left Bielsko-Biala by bus at 3pm, so from the bus station in Bielsko to my apartment, I was travelling for 11 and a half hours.

Będę w Polsce dzisiaj

Well, It's now ridiculous o'clock in the morning and I'm awake and it's a Sunday morning. I've chosen to be not asleep at this point because I have a flight soon. I set my alarm for 5am because I have to leave by 6am, but I woke up anyway at 4:45am and figured there wasn't much point in trying to get back to sleep. I'm flying from Paris-CDG to Kraków-Balice John-Paul II International Airport.
After arriving in Kraków, I'm going to take a bus to Bielsko-Biała. I'll be in Poland for about 6 days, so my posts won't be frequent during that time*.



* Yes, I know, my posts have always been sporadic, so it won't make a lot of difference.

A green power rant.

I was listening to a BBC podcast today on science, where they have a resident expert answer questions from callers. The show in very similar to Triple J's science on mornings with Dr. Karl in that it involves people calling in with science-related questions. Another similarity is that the scientist in both cases is Dr. Karl.
The episode I listened to today had a caller ask why Australia doesn't use greener power sources rather than coal because Australia has a relatively small population, considering the size of the country, and plenty of wind, waves and sun. It's something I've noticed myself over my years of living in Australia; we do certainly have an abundance of these things. Dr. Karl explained that the caller was right, Australia definitely does have the capability to obtain all of it's required energy from the sun, wind and waves, and would therefore not be dependant in any way on coal or nuclear energy sources. Why is the majority of Australia's electricity still produced using coal then? The simple answer is that it's political. Australia, and Queensland in particular, has a very strong coal industry that the government looks after and listens to. I know that this is how the world works at the moment, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it. Electric cars that need to be plugged in to charge aren't really all that environmentally friendly in Australia compared to petrol-powered cars because the electricity used to charge these cars is generated in coal power stations. Australia could be so much greener, and cut down on its carbon emissions drastically if there were just a small change in the mentality of those who run the country.
Considering the difference between the lifetime of an individual and the lifetime of a continent, I think it should be a more prominent issue during elections, but it's one that didn't really come up much during the last election, from what I could tell of the campaigns given that I was on the other side of the world at the time.

I'm not Marc L.

I'm just after reading an article* about, well, I suppose internet privacy, or lack thereof.

It starts with: Happy Birthday Marc. The 5th of December 2008, you're celebrating your 29th birthday. You don't know me, but I know you very well....

... and it goes on quite a bit, basically demonstrating that the author knows a lot about Marc L's life, job, habits, travels, etc thanks solely to information gleaned from Google, Facebook and/or Flickr.

It was interesting to read how he came across this information, and how Marc L was found totally at random through a Flickr search. It was also a little worrying and got me thinking about how much information about me is publically available. I set my facebook profile to semi-private or something a while back, and I don't have as many photos on my Picasa account as this Marc L had on his Flickr account (17000), nor do I write much about my photos on Picasa and I've never added them to a group or list etc. It is possible to find me through a google search, but none of the information available is up-to-date - my university webpage just gives the address and phone number of the university.

Anyway, it's just some food for thought, and thanks to Aurélie for giving me the link to the article.

*Sorry, the article's in French and I'm not going to translate it as it's quite long. You'll just have to learn to read the language.

Język polski jest trudny

Deklinacja polska jest trudna. Chciałem mówić "Będę w Bielsku-Białej" ale myślałem że to był "Będę w Bielska-Białej", ale mówisz "Jadę DO Bielska-Białej". Nie miałem racji (tak, wiem, zawsze mam racje). Wiem też że wszycsy rozumią jeśli mówię "jadę do Bielsku-Białej" lub "jadę do Bielsko-Biała". Bardzo chciałbym mówić po polsku jak moja koleżanka w Bielsku-Białej mówi po angielsku. Muszę kupować bilet na autobus od Krakowa do Bielska-Białej wkrótce, więc będę muszić wiedzić jak mówić "proszę bilet do Bielska-Białej".

I won't bother translating that into English (or French) because it would be weird... it's just a comment about a grammatical point in Polish that doesn't exist in English or French, so it wouldn't make sense.

Geee

I've noticed over the last couple of days that my g key on my keyboard has become rather unresponsive. This results in me spelling words like "groan" as "roan". rrrr... I mean "grrrr". I hope this is a temporary thing, as I prefer to have all my keys in perfect working order.
Remember, it's a "g key" so there's no need to start making jokes about "g spots".

Qu'est-ce que j'ai fait?

Je suis allé au centre Pompidou ce soir avec Beth, une anglaise qui habite à Paris. C'était la troisième fois que j'y suis allé. C'était très sympa, et Beth connait beaucoup de l'histoire de l'art. C'était gratuit aujourd'hui parce que c'est le premier dimanche du mois.

Hier soir, j'ai diné avec la même Beth au Jazz Café, un restaurant très sympa où on peut manger de la cuisine franco-orientale, la magreb incluse. Après, nous sommes allés au pub irlandais avec l'Homard et deux de ses amis. L'ambience du pub était formidable, mais le drapeau d'Australie était à l'envers.

J'aime les chocolats de Jeff de Bruges. (Une étudiante m'a donné un cadeau des chocolats de Jeff de Bruges pour le Noël)

Okay, now the English version of this post:

I went to the Pompidou centre this evening with Beth, an English lass who lives in Paris. It was the third time that I've been there. It was a nice evening, and Beth knows a lot about Art History. It was free today because it's the first Sunday of the month.

Yesterday evening, I had dinner with the same Beth in a very nice restaurant called "Jazz Café", which serves french-middle eastern cuisine, including magreb. Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub with the Lobster and two of his friends. The pub had a cool ambience, though the Australian flag was hanging upside down.

I really like the chocolates from Jeff de Bruges. (A student gave me some as a Christmas gift)

Tak, jadę do Polski.

Ja kupowałem moje bilety na samolot. Będę lecić do Polski 25 styczniu, i od Polski do Francji 30 styczniu. Jestem bardzo szczęśćliwy, to jest super!

Je viens d'acheter mes billets d'avion. Je vais partir en Pologne le 25 janvier, et revenir en France le 30 janvier. Je suis très content, c'est formidable!

I've just bought my plane tickets. I'm flying to Poland on the 25th of January, and returning to France on the 30th of January. I'm excited, as Big Kev would say!

Technical blog question

On a technicaly note, does anyone know why my "recent comments" section is empty? In spite of the fact that I've received some recent comments. I thought I used the same code as Kat and her recent comments seem to be intact. Any ideas why or how to fix it?

Jadę do Polski? Tak, to jest możliwe.

Chcę jechać do Polski wkrótce. Myślę że mogę tam jechać w ten styczniu, może od 25 do 30 lub 31. Potem, będę przyjechać do Paryzia gdzie jeszcze będą 2 tygodnia przy muszę jechać do Australii. Mam nadzieje że będę jeszcze raz w Europach. Kiedy jestem w Polsce (w Bielska-Białej; będę w domu Agi), chciałbym jechać do Gliwic bo mam dużo kolegów tam. Myślę że mogę być dostępny w Gliwicach dla tylko jeden dzień, bo chciałbym jeździć na nartach. Mam nadzieje że dużo śnieg pada. Niestety nigdy nie poszedłem na nartach w Polsce, kiedy mieszkałem tam. Poszedłem na nartach w Francji i w Australii.
Chcę jeść pierogi ruskie, i naleśniki z serem.

2009!

Happy New Year!
Bonne Année!
Szczęśćliwego Nowego Roku!

I know it's an arbitrarily chosen date to start the year (why not start the year on the 1st of April?), but it's the date that our society chose long ago, so I'm using this opportunity to wish you all the best for the coming year. And yes, I cheated with the date and time published. It's my blog and I can do what I want.

Bienvenue, Witam, Welcome

Bienvenue Aurélie au monde de Blog! Elle vient de créer son blog, qui se trouve ici.

Witam Aurélie na świat Bloga! Ona ma swój blog, i ten blog jest tutaj.

Welcome, Aurélie, to the world of Blog! She has just created her own blog, which can be found here.