They didn't believe me!

Here in France I have to pay taxes, and if we have a television, we have to pay a TV tax. (116€ a year) I don't have a television, so when I declare my income, I have to tick a box to say that I don't have a television.

And this year, it seems that they didn't believe me :P I found this in my letter-box one day:


It says that someone came by that morning when I was at class, to check whether I really didn't have a television. At the bottom of the page was a form that I had to fill in and send back to them. In the letter the mentioned that if I have a television, I could tell them now, and pay the TV tax without getting fined. Hehe, that would be for people who lied on their income tax declaration and are having second thoughts...

No one ever came to check this before...so I guess they only check for some people? (and hope they scare enough people, or catch some...) I heard from a friend that someone he knows bought a television just to watch videos (and not for public television, 'cos that's what the tax is for), and he had to take the TV to a shop to have them take out the parts used to receive the TV signal, so that he wouldn't need to pay the tax.

Beriyani in Lyon

Today I went to a "beriyani" shop in Lyon with Dinie and Goh. (I can never make up my mind how to spell "beriyani")

It isn't really beriyani...it just resembles it slightly. The rice (basmati, I believe) is fried (like fried rice, not deep-fried, okay?) with some sauce and the chicken is tandoori chicken. But who cares if it's not really beriyani? It's delicious! :D

Yum-my!

It's an awfully big plate, though. I had been there once before to try the rice, so today I tried the kebab. And I bought the rice for take-away; I can reheat it later! :P

Here's the kebab:

for two people; not all mine, okay? :P

Unlike some other kebab shops where you can choose the kind of bread you want (the prices might vary), in this shop there is only one kind of bread. They make it themselves, it's actually like naan, but fluffier, I think. It tastes really good; in fact I didn't find the kebab in itself very special, but the bread kinda made up for it.

Here's what it looks like inside:


The one I ordered was an Indian kebab, and it only has a piece of meat inside - a long sausage-like piece, made of minced meat. I think the next time I'll try the kebab with another filling (the other choices are chicken and vegetarian, so I guess it will be chicken :P).

The only problem is that the shop is really far from our place...just the thought of making the "journey" there can put us off going there... :( That's why I wanted to take-away the rice, instead of going there another time soon ;)

Aromatherapy

Today's lesson: burning resistances is therapeutic.

Today we burnt two during the mini-projet session. The mini-projet is an electronics project where we have to come up with a circuit, depending on the topic they give us. We prepare it (the theory) in advance, then we have three 3-hour sessions to put the circuit together, test it, and correct anything.

Our topic was to make a 15-volt direct current generator, using the EDF power supply (EDF = French electric company). The generator had to have a protection system against high currents (maximum 400mA). We had a transformer, and we could use operational amplifiers, diodes, transistors, resistances, capacitors,...all the basics. (these details are for those who happen to specialize in this field) So we came up with the circuit; we simulated it and everything worked really well.

And here's how our three sessions went (I won't list out all the details, otherwise it'd be very, very long!):

First session: We put everything on the board, but we had a problem measuring one of the voltages, and the teachers were too busy walking around talking to every group (we worked in pairs) to come and help us :/ So we didn't do much, but at least all the electrical components were already placed on the board, ready to be used the next time. (it's not that easy, we had to be really careful not to get all the components mixed up, okay!)

Second session: We found out that our problem was (simply!) due to a faux contact ⁽¹⁾. So we went on to test the rest of the circuit, which worked pretty fine except for a few problems that were solved pretty quickly with the teachers' help. (there were more teachers there during the second session) And then, the highlight of the session: we tested our protection system (by using a small resistance as the charge) and we saw smoke! So we quickly cut the power (bien sûr, on voulait pas tout faire exploser ⁽²⁾ :P) We tested our circuit with a "normal" charge and it worked fine, so we were wondering what was smoking, cos if it was the charge, who cares? :P All we needed to do was protect our circuit, not the charge. So we asked the teachers (two of them, with different opinions :P), there was some blah blah blah, and we ended up putting a heat dissipator on one of our transistors. End of session. (so no time to check whether the dissipator solved the problem)

Third session: We were pretty hard-pressed to be done, 'cos that was the last session and we had to present our circuit by the end of the session. After a few tests with different charges, we decided that the smoke from the last session didn't come from the transistor, but from the resistance that we used as the charge. So our circuit worked; we just had to cut the power pretty quickly when we were using a small resistance. (we could smell it burning even before it started smoking)

But, during the presentation the teacher (Claude Richard ;) ) didn't want us to cut the power...he went "c'est pas grave ⁽³⁾ ", "c'est pas cher, un transistor ⁽⁴⁾ ", "c'est grave quand ça brûle et on sait pas pourquoi ⁽⁵⁾ " (et on savait bien pourquoi! ⁽⁶⁾ ;) ) Everyone around smelt the burning odour and at the end the whole resistance was black and smoking (it was as if there was a miniature bonfire on our circuit board! We could use the smoke for communication with the other tables! :P) Then we put another resistance (a slightly bigger one) and it burnt more slowly, but we still smelt it...it didn't turn completely black though, it didn't have enough time :P

Even the other teacher who was evaluating us (they came to evaluate us in pairs) wanted to cut the power when it started smoking...and guess what C.R. said? "Ils ont pas l'habitude, ils font pas ETEP ⁽⁷⁾ " ("ils" comme les autres profs ⁽⁸⁾ )

I'd like to insist: the first burning resistance smelt hor-ri-ble! That's why everyone turned around to see what was going on! That, is our wonderful electronics aromatherapy. C'est en brûlant des résistances qu'on apprend des choses! ⁽⁹⁾ lol

"Glossary"
(1) it's when two pieces should be touching but they don't - dunno what it's called in English, can someone tell me?
(2) of course, we didn't want to explode anything
(3) it doesn't matter
(4) a transistor is cheap
(5) it matters only when it burns and you don't know why
(6) and we knew why!
(7) they're not used to it 'cos they don't do ETEP
*ETEP = Electrotechnique et Electronique de Puissance (electrical as opposed to electronics?)
(8) "they" as in the other teachers
*Claude Richard is one of our ETEP teachers, and also the director of GE (my department)
(9) It is by burning resistances that we learn!

There are loads of terms I don't really know in English, if someone knows them, tell me! :)

Edit: So here's our final circuit!

Blasting off!

Here are a few more photos of our Space Bar.

our bar on Sunday morning - no customers yet! :(

our bar on Sunday afternoon (much better!)

kids lining up for their turn to destroy a tin-can architectural structure ;)

Here Marion and I were getting ready to blast off :P Home is where Mars is! lol

Last but not least, the Martians!
from left: Valentin, Céline and Sylvain

Thanks to Céline for the photos! (I believe they were all taken with her camera)

Too cute not to post!

The puppy is so like a stuffed animal...I want it!!! Want to hug it, squeeeeze it...

Okay, I know, I'm gushing.

Thanks to Alex for this video!

I didn't know I wore sexy clothing for five years...

I usually don't comment on newspaper articles, but this is an exception: School uniform sexy, says group

Ridiculous!

The school uniform is SO NOT sexy! If a girl is sexy in it then she's the one who's sexy, not the uniform!

Anyway, let's take a closer look at the article:

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.

In multicultural Malaysia, home to majority-Muslim Malays as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, female students at government schools have a choice of wearing a white blouse with a knee-length skirt or pinafore.

They may also wear a “baju kurung” and a headscarf is optional for Malay students.

Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”

“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution,” she said.

“Decent clothes which are not revealing can prevent and protect women from any untoward situations,” she said, suggesting that girls wear a blouse of a different colour or with an undergarment.

[*snort* They really think that girls don't wear undergarments unless if they're part of the school uniform?]

However, the girls themselves also came in for criticism, with the association saying that some used the white blouse to lure men.

“This is the source of the problem, where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them,” Munirah said.

[So why not ban white blouses for women? 'Cos otherwise, outside school hours some might put them on to lure men, and get molested or have premarital sex!]

“This could see them getting molested, having premarital sex and all sorts of things.” – AFP

[And all sorts of things! Yes, that's it! They could go on to live a happy life, unmolested and successful.]

Note: comments in [ ] are mine.

Of the Space Bar and a rainy weekend

Remember my post about the 8th of May? I finally took some photos of what we made that day.

the famous cardboard spaceship

from another angle, so that you can see the "exhaust pipes"
(don't mind what's in the background; it's part of our stand)

Here's our drinks stand:

the Space Bar

something to go with the space theme

and a rocket with holes for photos
(now you know what was in the background of the 2nd photo; we recycle in INSA! ;) )

This year is the first year (since I arrived in INSA) that it rained during the 24H. So we didn't have as many customers as we would have liked... I was especially unlucky, 'cos my shift was Sunday morning, and it was when it rained the hardest. So instead of selling drinks, we were directing people to other places (outsiders arrived in INSA, saw our stand, and thought we were the information booth :/ )

A few people even asked us whether we sold coffee (it was a little cold because of the rain) but unfortunately we only sold cold drinks. It's usually really hot during the 24H! Who would have thought that this year we'd need hot drinks instead of cold?

But Sunday afternoon the rain stopped and sun came out, and we had fine weather, so there were more customers (I went to the stand again to "visit" them) They even managed to take out the tin cans we had painted, arrange them on a table and let the kids throw tennis balls to knock them down.

Why do fireworks hold so much attraction?

Loud explosions, colourful streaks in the sky...

They're just lovely, eh?

I went to INSA Sunday night to watch the fireworks at the end of the 24H weekend. Snapped quite a lot of photos, so as to end up with a few "okay" ones ;P

For daytime or nighttime?

Here's something I got in a trivia newsletter:

In India it is perfectly proper for men to wear pajamas in public. Pajamas are accepted as standard daytime wearing apparel.

Or is it that they wear daytime clothes as pajamas, huh? Ever thought of that?

Chee Chung, confirm this?? :P

Fancy a taste of smoke?

Recently I bought a packet of Belin croustilles.


I had already tried its cheese flavour before and liked it. This time I tried a new flavour that just came out:

"cooked with wood-fire" flavour

It's like Twisties...except for the flavour, of course.


Then I happened to look at the ingredients:


"Maize flour, vegetable oil, wooden fire flavouring, smoke flavouring, ..."
Hang on, smoke flavouring? I can't believe I ate something with smoke flavour... -_-

At least they didn't say "real smoke extract" like those juice manufacturers who use "real fruit extract" :P

Did you know?

I found this out recently...when I make a payment in foreign currency by card, the bank charges me 2.25% + 30 cents. But, when I use an ATM (again, foreign currency), it charges 2.25% + 3 euros! No wonder it charged me so much for my withdrawal in Prague...that scared me so much I didn't dare to use my card for foreign currency again...(I thought payment and withdrawal charges were the same) Okay, next time I won't use an ATM, I'll just pay by card!

I believe these are the new charges (or the charges by the new bank)... 'cos I remember the old charges being a fixed charge or a certain percentage, whichever is higher.

I wonder whether other banks charge the same way...

Here in my home

(to WW: your friend's in there! ;D )



For more information, go to their website.

The song's by Pete Teo, and here's another one of his songs that I like better each time I hear it... I go.

Life is going to shovel dirt on you

A story I read thanks to Alvin.

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a
well. The animal cried piteously for hours as
the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the
well needed to be covered up anyway;
it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and
help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began
to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the
donkey realized what was happening and cried
horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he
quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally
looked down the well. He was astonished at what
he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his
back, the donkey was doing something amazing.
He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel
dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it
off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey
stepped up over the edge of the well and
happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds
of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well
is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of
our troubles is a steppingstone.. We can get out
of the deepest wells just by not stopping,
never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.

Live simply and appreciate what you have.
Give more.

Expect less

NOW............

Enough of that crap. . ..The donkey later came back,
and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him.
The gash from the bite got infected and
the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.


MORAL FROM TODAY'S LESSON:

When you do something wrong, and try to cover
your ass, it always comes back to bite you.


And a tongue-twister for you:

The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.

It's said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

La classe!

On Tuesday we had our final presentation of a group project. It's a project we have been working on since the beginning of the year. There were a few stages in the project, and we had already handed in a few reports and done a presentation. (the class was divided into 3 groups, with 8 to 10 people in a group)

This time we were told to come with formal clothing (though some didn't). Here's a compilation of some photos I took with my phone (who knows when we'll see them all dressed-up again?)

(click to enlarge)
Some of them are remarkably well-dressed ;)

I couldn't take photos during my group's presentation, of course. We were the first to present our project, so after that I was free to take photos without having to worry about how things would turn out. :P But then, as usual the photos weren't very clear, so the only way to make them "passable" was to make a collage (thanks to Picasa).

They sent in a "devil jury member", by the way:

The "devil" is the one in the blue shirt (you can't miss him! lol)

Hehe, this is the first time I edited a photo to demean someone :P But hey, we don't see his face, I don't know his name, no one knew who he was...so he's anonymous at any rate.

He was there to comment on our presentations, together with our teacher (seated on his left). Our teacher only had a few comments each time, but he was finding fault with every single thing we did (for every group), sometimes even blaming us for not doing something that we actually did do, except that he didn't notice. Duh...

But then, he did say that that was the reason he was there :P

In the 9-picture block, the middle picture on the bottom row was taken in our next class, Maths. We arrived late because we had to finish the three presentations, and our teacher was talking to another teacher. They continued talking as we arrived, waiting for the others. (we don't usually arrive all at once) Then after some time, we knew that the others weren't going to arrive... (in the case of better late than never, they chose never :P) It was because we had an Electronics test the next day.

Today, again, there were only 15 people in class (the same teacher, the same subject). Just because there's an ETEP (electrical, as opposed to electronics) test tomorrow. The poor teacher...what luck to have his classes just before the tests! :P

We aren't supposed to skip class, but since some of the teachers are either so nice and/or just don't bother taking attendance, lots of people skip class.

(for the French-speakers: in the title, pun intended, okay? ;D )

Edit: Just posted an update ten years after the initial post.

58% attendance

15 people out of 26 in class! More on it another time, I have a test tomorrow!

*gasp* What. arrogance.

Someone posted this on the guestbook of The Authoritative Minesweeper:

9 NF on int is impossilbe - the board what on I made 10,015 was the easiest in the world, the speed was the best in the world (played by me) and it wasnt a 9

(direct copy-paste)

*dies*

For info:
NF is non-flagging (playing using only left-clicks to open the squares)
int = intermediate

*sniff* I can't seem to play fast any more...

The 8th of May

To lift my spirits a bit, I shall blog about last Thursday.

I wasn't going to blog about it, since I have no photos, and it's gonna be hard to describe things... But I did have fun :)

Next weekend (the 16th-18th May) there will be the 24H (24 hours) in INSA. It's a kind of festival/carnival thing, and during the weekend there will be activities, stalls, concerts, etc on the campus. My department (GE) is holding a stand (they're calling it a bar) that sells drinks (sodas and beer) We had to come up with a theme, and it was Space Bar. So the decorations will be planets on a black backdrop, and there'll be activities about space...mostly for children, since the 24H is open to outsiders, not only people in INSA. It was also where I got my rabbit balloon, remember? ;P

Thursday was a public holiday (8th of May, Armistice 1945) so we prepared the decorations and games "equipment" for the bar. Most of the games are about throwing stuff (supposedly asteroids) at planets or tin cans (come to think of it, I don't know why we decided to use tin cans). We brought old tennis and table-tennis balls, which we rolled in paint to make them colourful, we also brought old socks (I say "we" but I only brought two ping pong balls that were broken when we were playing, and two tin cans) which we filled with sand to make "asteroids" (or comets when they have tails). We spray-painted the socks to make them colourful as well. The tin cans were also painted, and we also painted a rocket on a big piece of cardboard, with holes to put our heads behind and take photos (you know, as if we were in the rocket)

We made a big cardboard spaceship as well, for the kids to draw on. At the beginning we had absolutely no idea how to make it, and no one was that willing to get started on it. In the end Valentin started it, making the head and body. Then he had to leave, and left(stuck!) me with the rest. I don't know how I would have done it, but luckily Alex came to join me, and we ended up making wings with "exhaust pipes" below them (what do we call those on a rocket?) I made the tail (we even put another "exhaust pipe" inside it, sticking out at the end), and later Alex added two laser guns. lol (they were cardboard guns, of course, dangerous only if you poke them in your eye :P)

(you might have noticed that the spaceship is the thing I'm most enthusiastic about :P)

We also had a bedsheet (there's a brand called le moins cher (cheapest) in France, which is really low quality, but suits our purpose, so they bought one) that we spray-painted with stars to go with the space theme, to hang in front of the bar (the table) Besides that, there was a piece of cloth we had spread on the ground when we were spray-painting (to avoid getting paint all over the ground) and in the end we decided to use that as a decoration as well, 'cos it had pretty cool patterns on it (like when we spray-painted the tin cans, we left a ring around it)

We had started in the morning, and for lunch we went to buy kebabs. We asked for take-away, and brought them back to eat outside the GE building. (we could get into the GE building to get stuff we needed, but we weren't supposed to sit inside) The GE students club had some drinks left over from other activities, so they took some out, including a bottle of pastis. I tried a bit of pastis, but didn't like it at all. It had a weird, but familiar flavour that I couldn't pinpoint, and now, thanks to Wikipedia, I know it was aniseed! (jintan manis) I guess I'd like it better with curry lol.

I asked them to give me only little pastis, 'cos I was pretty sure that I wouldn't like it much, and they only gave me half a cup (we used plastic cups), but I still couldn't bring myself to finish it! Luckily, Céline didn't finish hers either, so I wasn't the only one :P (well, it wasn't that important, but it was nice to have a teman :P) The guys finished it for us :D (there were 6 of us there at lunch, 4 guys and 2 girls, there were others who came before and after)

I might have been a little crazy to go for this kind of thing...especially since the people involved aren't usually the people I mix with... But luckily there was Céline who is the kind who's friendly with everyone and can get almost anyone to talk (one of the French calls her mulut murai, courtesy of Dinie ;P), Sylvain with whom I had talked to a few times in the lecture hall, and Valentin and Marion from my class. And Sun Yi came for a while in the morning (even though I didn't see her much that day 'cos in the morning I went to the beach volleyball courts to fill the socks with sand).

Thanks guys. It was really a bit like playing around...made me feel like a little kid again. (especially all that spray-painting :D )

Oh yeah, and we also had a few helmets (the kind you wear on construction sites) that we wrapped in aluminium foil and spray-painted (to make Martian caps, 'cos we're supposed to disguise ourselves to man the bar ;) ) We also cut open two old balls to do the same. (we had to wrap the helmets in foil 'cos we had to return them later, in good condition! ) I was the one who spray-painted all those (if I have photos of us wearing them later, you'll be able to give your opinion), I didn't quite know what I was doing, but the others were happy with the result, that's what counts! (the different pieces of headgear were certainly colourful in the end :P)

Edit:
I've posted photos of some of the stuff we made: here

Lights out

Darn. The light on my cassette-player (the one that shows the battery level) just died. Now I won't even know when I'm close to having to change the batteries...

It ain't a bed of roses

I've got to post something after all. Something I wrote sometime last month. Slightly edited so as not to hit out at people.

So you think it's easy and all fun?

I can't even ask someone how many marks he got.

I can't even ask how someone is ranked.

I've got to live up to everyone's expectations, or hear comments about how surprised everyone is.

I've got everyone thinking I study 24/7, without even getting to know me.

I've got people who are scared of me.

I've got people who don't dare to talk to me because they're afraid I'll laugh at their English (like I've ever laughed at anyone's English!)

It is sickening, sometimes.

Maybe that's why sometimes I get along better with people I meet in ping pong or minesweeper. 'Cos these people already know that I do something else besides studying.

But a whole lot of people know I play badminton and ping pong!!

When I don't know what to choose, they always say "you don't have to worry, you can choose whatever you want!" But that's the problem! I don't know what to choose, didn't you hear? Not "I can't choose what I want"!

*shudder* Have I turned into a whining bitch?
("bitch" as in "female dog", please)

Meaningless post

Been posting in my private blog. Don't know whether to post it here or not. I want to, but public-ness is just dangerous.

In the end, I can't.

But I still want to write here, where someone will read it. Hence this post.

Silly me.

Soybean cheese?

Know what it is? Cheese made of soybeans!

supposedly a nutritional supplement...well, my mother did say that everything with "beans" is good for you ;)

Hehe, I guess "cheese" is the best translation for taufu fa? I would never have though of calling it a kind of cheese...

I was actually going to buy a soybean drink powder (that I had already bought before) when I saw this and decided to buy it instead. It's not bad...in absence of "real" taufu fa, can substitute lah :P

While I'm on this food stuff, I would like to recommend these curry pastes:

(click for bigger pictures)

I found them at the Sunday market, which means that we can't always find them...if you ever see them, you don't have to hesitate or wonder whether they're good or not...just go ahead and buy!

Aaaaahhh! My eyes!!!

So I went to play badminton today. And when I got there, I found that the walls of the hall have been painted bright red!!! Are they crazy? The hall is used for sports all the time, and they had the "brilliant" idea to paint it a "lovely", bright, sunny colour! It hurts my eyes!

imagine playing in this environment... :/

I guess I'll get used to it... But I still think they're crazy. Wonder whose idea it was.

I wanna play badminton!

I just realised a few days ago that I have gone four weeks without playing badminton. Usually I play on Friday night at the INSA club, but the Friday before the holidays I didn’t go, and then for two weeks there wasn’t badminton ‘cos it was the holidays! Then this week Thursday was Labour Day, so we had a pont (bridge), which means we don’t have class on Friday either (sort of like “bridging” Thursday and Saturday)

Next week Thursday is a public holiday as well, but we won’t be having the pont. Of course, we would have preferred having the pont, especially since the next Monday is another public holiday, and a pont would mean a 5-day weekend! But in this case I’m kinda glad that we don’t have a pont, ‘cos it means there’ll be badminton :P

Monday being a holiday means that there won’t be ping pong club...but at least I also play on Tuesday :)

Love of the common people

By Paul Young. I heard it on Virgin Radio (they were playing 80s hits) and liked the song, so I searched for it. Nice song, and nice video! :D

Tried to make the lyrics box wider, but it didn't work :(

Penang Hokkien Podcast

I'd like to recommend this for the Hokkien-speaking people (especially if you speak Penang Hokkien) It's a sort of online radio show, and new episodes are published every week.

Penang Hokkien Podcast

I just listened to the episode entitled Tit Tit Game, and it was hilarious! (albeit a little long) For one, there was one of the guest talkers who was an old friend of the host, and several times he nearly called him by his name (they use pseudonyms on the show). At the beginning someone had a problem changing his nickname (they were talking online) and the host wanted to tell him how to change it, but instead of telling him to type /nick he said nick/ so it didn't work. For a while he was like "just type n-i-c-k-slash" and then when the other guy said it didn't work, he tried it himself and went "eh? why can't it work now?" Fortunately someone else saw his mistake :P In this episode they were also talking a lot about the streets and places in Penang (which unfortunately I don't know very well, but I've heard some names often enough from my parents) I think most of the people who come on the show are from Penang (understandably :P) so they were all reminiscing about the old days (in this episode they were all born in the 70s, the generation of tit tit games :P)

But brace yourselves, there are times when the host explodes with laughter, and it's really loud! :P

Happy listening!