| meme |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|11:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Didier Super - Y'en a des biens | ] |
Because once in a while, yeah, let's.
( let's. ) |
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| There's always time to vote. |
[May. 20th, 2009|12:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  silly | ] |
| [ | music |
| | System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. | ] |
What are you doing on June 7th? Whatever you have planned, there's always time to vote - at least according to these (the last one is my favourite).
There's always time to vote - Tour de France
There's always time to vote - The bank robbers
There's always time to vote - The slasher film
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| Qui a dit que les élections européennes c'était chiant ? |
[May. 18th, 2009|04:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | optimistic | ] |
Avec ce clip fort sympathique, la liste Europe-Ecologie aère un peu ce à quoi vous vous attendiez en période de campagne électorale. Un lip-dub avec Daniel Cohn-Bendit et Alain Lipietz, elle est pas belle l'écologie ?
Et si vous êtes un geek et que vous avez prévu de rester chez vous le 7 juin, n'oubliez pas que c'est aux Verts Européens que vous devez l'amendement 138 au paquet télécom qui a torpillé la loi HADOPI.
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| Happy veggie day! |
[May. 13th, 2009|12:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  productive | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Murray Gold - Doctor Who soundtrack (series 4) | ] |
In an unexpected environmental effort, the city of Ghent (Gand) is now having a weekly veggiedag, where civil servants and councillors will opt for vegetarian meals every Thursdays. Schoolchildren should follow in September. All militancy aside, this move aims at reducing the city's carbon footprint - cattle is responsible for 25% of the world's greenhouse gases emissions.
I can only approve. You too can help, by making the same at home with just a smaaaall aubergine.
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| Agendas |
[May. 6th, 2009|12:36 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
Reading the agenda of the European Parliament sessions, I can't help but notice that among the miscellaneous topics at the end, there's often something about repelling parliamentary immunities, and the names always sound Italian. Clichés, clichés... |
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| Echec critique |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|10:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pissed off | ] |
Today, I tried to bake brownies, using a recipe I've tried dozens of times before.
For no apparent reason, the cake wouldn't bake, so I left it in the over a bit longer. It burned, and it's still not baked.
Right now I hate cooking, I hate food, I hate kitchens and the whole universe in general. |
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| Unexpected encounter |
[Mar. 16th, 2009|11:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | jubilant | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Murray Gold - The Face of Boe (Doctor Who Series 2) | ] |
Today, I was trapped inside the building of the European Commission's Directorate-General of Enterprise and Industry by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Fortunately, we found an exit around the back.
My job is getting more and more interesting. |
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| Baptism of fire |
[Mar. 10th, 2009|09:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enthralled | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Guns'n'Roses - Welcome to the jungle | ] |
Today, I took the floor at a "high-level stakeholders' conference" at the European Commission, speaking to a former Commissioner and the head of cabinet of the Vice-President of the Commission, in front of more than 400 lobbyists, researchers and representatives of the member states.
It went well, but I hope next time it doesn't take that long for my hands to stop shaking. |
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| Geographical evolution |
[Dec. 12th, 2008|11:04 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | relieved | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Men at Work - Land Down Under | ] |
Flat-hunting mission in Brussels successful. A suitable target has been identified, engaged and negociated within the allowed time frame. A deal has been struck for a two-room apartment in the area of Schaerbeek after minimal but successful bargaining. Moving in at the beginning of January. Pictures available eventually.
I'm coming back to Paris on Sunday, and now I feel like I'm on vacation at last.
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|
| professional evolution |
[Dec. 2nd, 2008|01:45 am] |
I has a job !
Starting in Brussels in January. In the meanwhile, I'm in Paris and fully available for drinks and socializing.
Whee ! |
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| Oh, what the hell. Why not ? |
[Oct. 17th, 2008|12:15 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
A is for age: 27. Much more comfortable than being turning 25 (quarter of a century) and 26 (closer to 30 than to 20).
B is for beer of choice: A tough choice, these days I'd go for After Dark's homebrewed J'ouvert Black, an honest porter.
C is for career right now: Embassy staff. Bound to change soon, though, as my contract expires next month.
D is for your dog's name: No dog, never had one.
E is for essential item you use everyday: My sunglasses. Don't go out in the Caribbean without them, even when it's cloudy.
F is for favorite TV show: I don't watch so many but now it would be House.
G is for favorite game to watch: Hockey, of course, I'm a honorary canadian.
H is for Home town: I'm not even sure I even had one of these, and I don't miss it. Patria est ubicumque est bene.
I is for instruments you play: Bass guitar, but not so good.
J is for favorite juice: Orange, really.
K is for whose butt you'd like to be kicking: Sorry, can't tell. That's a secret.
L is for last place you ate at: At the aforementioned After Dark, for my one-month-until-I-leave party.
M is for marriage: Not in the foreseeable future.
N is for your name: Impossible to pronounce for anyone who's not Dutch.
O is for overnight hospital stay: I underwent surgery three times during the first month of my life and never checked in an hospital since.
P is for people you were with today: My coworkers, three of them being my neighbors. It's a small island.
Q is for what's your best quality: I'm a badass.
R is for what are you currently reading: Collapse, how societies choose to fail or succeed, Jared Diamond, 2005, Viking Press, 592 p.
S is for relationship status: So close no matter how far - but not for very much longer.
T is for time you woke up today: Something like 8:50, even though I was supposed to be at work at 8. Fortunately, I can work flexible hours if I want.
U is for the type of underwear you have on: None right now. Na na nah !
V is for vegetable you love: I love them zucchinis.
W is for worst habits: Not showing up on time ?
X is for x-rays you've had recently: Funny enough, two years ago I had an unexplained fever, and before I could nail it down as Infectious Mononucleosis I had my lungs x-rayed, which is standard procedure in such a case. Surprise ! Dextrocardia ! My heart is slightly right from where it should be and turned 90° to the right on a vertical axis, with my aorta pointing to my back. I would make an unstoppable vampire.
Y is for something candy: Yes please, but something with chocolate in it.
Z is for zodiac sign: Cancer. I'm not into zodiac signs, really.
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| I aten't dead yet |
[Oct. 17th, 2008|12:06 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | peaceful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Radiohead - Pablo Honey | ] |
In case anyone is still reading this: good news ! I thought about posting some pretty pictures on here. However, I changed alliegances recently and got a brand new Macbook, for which I don't have a proper FTP managing software. Any ideas about what I should get? Something easy to use with basic features would be best. The soonest I have it running, the soonest you can forget about the winter / hate me with a passion by looking at caribbean landscapes.
Thanks ! |
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| Back online |
[Jan. 29th, 2008|10:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | peaceful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Rolling Stones - You Got Me Rocking | ] |
After a little fiddling I'm happy to announce that I now have internet access at home.
Due to thick reinforced concrete walls and a peculiar placement of the wireless router, I only have access from my terrace for now. Not that it's a big problem...
Meet my new desk ! |
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| Moving out, moving in |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|02:49 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | energetic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Mogwai - Summer | ] |
"Quand ça change, ça change : faut pas se laisser démonter."
- Jean, dans Les Tontons Flingueurs
Long story short, I got evicted from my flat on december 12th, and had to find a new place to live.
(long story is, I had some new burglar bars (grilles de sécurité) installed and bought padlocks to put on them. The landlord (who lives in the UK) sent me an email, demanding that I give his brother-in-law a spare key. Of course, since I don't trust him at all, I refused, and I got an email back saying that he wanted me out. Unfortunately since my one-year lease expired at the beginning of December he was well in his rights... So I set off to find a new place)
So here is where I used to live.
I found a very lovely flat but it wasn't available until early January.
A friend of mine was on vacation in France around Christmas and wanted to have someone at her house to deter burglars, so she offered me to stay for the interim.
So this is where I've been living for the past three weeks.
I moved most of my stuff today (and now have a sore back), and since my friend comes back on wednesday I have a couple of days to go back and forth and move the rest.
This is where I'm living from now on.
Many more pictures to come, but now I need to have some lunch and lie down a bit. |
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| My eyeballs hurt now |
[Dec. 18th, 2007|11:19 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
Yesterday was movie night.
Yes, we do have a movie theatre here ! Brand new, neatly air-conditioned, comfortable seats and cheap admission (equivalent of 3.80 Euro), not to mention the possibility to watch your movie with a big box of nachos covered in chemical cheese sauce.
So, among the apalling list of Christmas movies that seem to be turned out by a factory somewhere in China, I picked out something that I thought would be more entertaining that annoying : Hitman (the movie).
Don't get me wrong : I knew it was going to suck badly. But I thought that I could have a little fun with some gratuitous slo-mo gunfights, pyrotechnic stunts, phallic car chases, hero-walking-with-an-explosion-in-the-background and other standard displays of sheer badassery required in every Hollywood action flick. Alas, I saw none of what I paid for and instead got a painful and hole-ridden plot peppered with action scenes shot by an epileptic monkey in order to hide the total lack of skill from the actors and stuntsmen. Not to mention that realistically enough, the main character has the charisma of a video game character (or a brick).
However I was rewarded with interesting facts :
- Interpol headquarters are located in London (in real life, they're in Lyon, France - less sexy)
- Interpol agents have 'jurisdiction' over Russian police in Russia
- You can shoot someone in the nose from 4km away with a sniper rifle
- The Paris train station Gare Montparnasse is located in St. Petersburg*
- Moscow is surrounded by tall, snow-tipped mountains.
All in all, it's definintely one of those movies that make you feel good - because you realize that 'hey, I could have done better than that !'
* I kid you not, some scenes supposed to happen in a St. Petersburg train station were shot in the Montparnasse train station, featuring SNCF trains and signs written in French. |
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| The caribbean mysteries |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|02:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
During my vacation an important package was mailed by my coworkers, under my instructions, to an office in Martinique. Martinique is maybe 30 km from here, it takes 7 minutes of flight to go there, and you can even see the lights at night from this office.
The package arrived today, 28 days later.
You see, I don't ask questions anymore around here. I don't want to know the why of things. I just nod, aknowledge and decide to use DHL from now on. |
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| The day the Earth didn't stand still |
[Nov. 30th, 2007|11:59 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  alive | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Guns'n'Rose - Knocking on Heaven's Door (again) | ] |
To all those who ask that question : yes, I'm still alive and well.
Posting notes to tell everyone that I didn't die after the last disaster to strike the island is becoming a habit !
Yesterday, Thursday November 30th, the island was shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on Richter's scale during more than 30 seconds. It originated approximately 150km underground, 15km north of Martinique, roughly 45km North of here. It is fortunate that it occured so deep, if it had been closer to the surface I might not be here to tell the tale : it would have instantly destroyed most buildings as far as Guadeloupe and caused a fair-sized tsunami.
Indeed, the earth was shaking as far as Anguilla, Barbados, Trinidad and Colombia, where it caused a few panics. On Saint Lucia and Martinique minor damage is reported, with a few buildings cracking and half a dozen wounded, mostly panicked people who jumped out of the window (which, considering the overall quality of local constructions, isn't an irrational move at all). Myself, I was quietly sitting at my desk in the office when I felt everything shaking - as mundane a description as it sounds, that's pretty much it. We had a little tremor earlier this week, the first earthquake that I felt in my life, so subtle most people didn't notice at all. So when it happened again I instantly understood what it was, and since after three seconds it showed no intention of stopping I dashed outside and yelled for everyone to get out. Despite the constant noise and passing by, it's not that bad after all to have my desk next to the door... No damage in the office and no damage at home either. And I'm glad I didn't buy a stand for my guitar : if I had, it would be smashed to bits on the floor by now.
So let's do a recap here :
First hurricane to hit the island in more than 25 years.
Biggest earthquake since 1953.
Both of them within four months.
BOTH OF THEM WHILE I'M HERE.
Talk about luck, eh ? |
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