Toi + Moi

I heard this song on the radio before, and quite liked it, but never knew the title nor the name of the singer (it's Grégoire, by the way). I found it yesterday, so here it is!



The title is You + Me (the + is read as "plus" and not "and") I like the lyrics as well, so I'll post them here, but I'm too lazy to translate them...on the whole he is inviting "you, me and everyone who wants to" to join in the dance, be happy and carefree.

Toi, plus moi, plus eux, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez, laissez faire l'insouciance.

A deux à mille, je sais qu'on est capable,
Tout est possible, tout est réalisable,
On peut s'enfuir bien plus haut que nos rêves,
On peut partir bien plus loin que la grève.

Oh toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, plus tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez c'est notre jour de chance.

Avec l'envie, la force et le courage,
Le froid, la peur ne sont que des mirages,
Laissez tomber les malheurs pour une fois,
Allez venez, reprenez avec moi.

Oh, toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez, laissez faire l'insouciance.

Je sais, c'est vrai, ma chanson est naïve,
Même un peu bête, mais bien inoffensive,
Et même, si elle ne change pas le monde,
Elle vous invite à entrer dans la ronde.

Oh toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez c'est notre jour de chance.

L'espoir, l'ardeur, prend tout ce qu'il te faut,
Mes bras, mon cœur, mes épaules et mon dos,
Je veux te voir des étoiles dans les yeux,
Je veux nous voir insoumis et heureux.

Oh, toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez, laissez faire l'insouciance.

Oh toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez c'est notre jour de chance.

Oh toi, plus moi, plus tous ceux qui le veulent,
Plus lui, plus elle, et tous ceux qui sont seuls,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse,
Allez venez et entrez dans la danse.

Thanks to Google...

...I now know that Samuel Morse's birthday falls on the 27th of April.

At work I often do Google searches. And today I was surprised to see, instead of the usual Google sign, this:
I was wondering why it was this way, and already thinking of posting it on my blog. So I sort of selected the image (like you select text) while thinking about it...just playing with the cursor, you see. And suddenly I saw the words "Samuel Morse" on the page. So I stopped the cursor on the image and got my answer: It's Samuel Morse's birthday!

And now I'm wondering about what I saw last week...a sort of waterfall somewhere in the words, a "nature" theme. What special day was it? Earth day?

Hey, stranger

I am sorry to say that my fears were confirmed.

About a week ago, someone by the name of Ramadhan Awang added me as a friend on Facebook. Now, I have never heard of this fellow before, but he had more than 30 friends in common with me (32, I believe).

Not being able to figure out who this person was, I sent him a message asking him who he was. Who knows, he could be someone I had been in the same room with during one of the various gatherings among Malaysians here in France. (The friends he had in common with me were Malaysians in France, hence this hypothesis on my part) But after several days without a reply, and seeing that I now had 40 friends in common with him, I decided to employ a "drastic measure" and posted on my status the question "Who is Ramadhan Awang?" (not in those exact words, but you get the gist of it)

Unfortunately no one was able (or willing) to give me an answer. Those who replied were unaware of who this fellow was, as were those to whom I posed the question directly.

As of now, I have 43 friends in common with him, and I somehow believe that the number will continue to rise. But I doubt that I will be contributing to that number, since I have come to the conclusion that no one knows who he is at all.

But this is disturbing, because it means that if a complete stranger (or stalker) could just add one "'add-friend'-happy" person and so get the friends of this person to add him too. And the more people you know who are friends with a certain person, the more secure you feel adding him...after all, where's the problem if he's vouched for by 40 of your friends?

So I'm glad I decided to restrict access to my profile (especially contact details) to my friends only, and not have it available to the friends of my friends as well. And I'm not about to add you if I don't know who you are or why you're adding me, not even if you are friends with ALL of my friends!

And I do wish that my friends would be able to provide me at least a tiny bit of information about their "friends"...

Of bytes and nibbles

Most of you have probably heard of a byte, which is equivalent to 8 bits. And for the more computer-savvy ones, you would know that a "word" is equal to 2 bytes (16 bits). But did you know that a "nibble" is half a byte (4 bits)?

I heard of it for the first time today, while looking through a datasheet (or an application note, as the case might be...but that doesn't matter) There was a glossary at the end and the word "nibble" caught my eye...and was I surprised to see the definition! lol

Lousy BIC

Forget the TCL, the BIC (Badminton INSA Club) is worse. At least the TCL doesn't have any obligations. But the BIC... I believe that this is the third year that I am not receiving any e-mails from it. During my first year in INSA, I received e-mails informing me when the club activity was going to be canceled. But not any more. The worst is that it happens quite often, especially on Fridays when some other club wants to use the badminton hall (or sports hall, 'cos it's used for several sports) for some competition or tournament. So I will go there and suddenly find out that the hall is occupied and that there is no badminton after all. And it's really annoying, especially if I have put something aside just to go and play badminton. Lousy committee...and you know what? One year I asked them to add me to their mailing list...and they forgot. I asked them a second time, and they asked me to write down my e-mail address for them...on the same piece of paper where I had written it the last time. I pointed it out to them, they said "oops", but till the end of the year I still wasn't on their mailing list. You would've thought they'd make some effort after the second time.

That is why I haven't asked them to add me again. But maybe they're just not sending e-mails any more, to anyone...'cos during days like today, there are usually other people arriving for badminton as well. So I guess I'm not the only uninformed one.

Strike!!!

No, not the bowling one. A somewhat less happy event.

Note: Slight rant, probably not very comprehensible towards the end, since it's quite hard to describe how things are here in a monologue. (I can't even check whether you have understood before continuing)

TCL is crazy. (TCL is the public transport company in Lyon) It's having a strike this week, for goodness knows what reason. On Monday the strike lasted the whole day, and there were less buses, trams and metros almost on every line. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday they decided to do the strike between 8am and 8:55am, then between 4pm and 4:55pm. I wonder who comes up with these time-tables.

But that's not all. Today (Thursday) there is less circulation between 4pm and 5pm, and tomorrow it will be between 8am and 9am. And they are planning to keep this up until the end of April, alternating between strikes in the morning and in the afternoon.

If I were having classes in INSA, I would hardly care about the strike, since going to class will take me 10 to 15 minutes with my own two feet, which are definitely not going on strike. But now that I am doing my internship and have to rely on public transport to get there, it gets pretty annoying.

You see, I usually leave home at about 7:40am. By the time the bus arrives it is usually 7:50am (unless if I manage to catch an earlier bus just as I reach the bus stop, or if the bus arrives slightly earlier) It takes about 5 minutes for the bus to reach Charpennes, where I take the metro's B line to another station and switch to the D line.

The D line is automatic, so strikes don't usually have any effect on its circulation. So the best way for me to avoid any effect on my transportation would be to already in the B line at 8am. Technically it should be easy, but the bus sometimes comes late and makes me reach the metro station at 8am. Or even if I reach the station before 8am, the metro might not be there when I arrive, and I don't think the people who are on strike would be above starting the strike a little earlier. So wait, wait, wait it shall be, and the longer we wait, the more people there will be waiting for the metro...and you guessed it, the fuller each metro will be -_-

And coming back... I get out of work at 4:11pm (don't ask me here; ask me why when you see me, and I shall gladly reply) and after taking the metro I usually reach Charpennes at about five to 5pm. Which means that the strike will still be on...so it will be a matter of luck whether the bus arrives quickly or not.

Boyzone, Boyzone, and Boyzone

After that slight rant in the previous post, here's something funny. *hahahahahaha* What are you waiting for? Laugh!

(sorry, lame joke :P )

Last night I was watching a Boyzone video on Youtube when I saw this link in the related videos section to a song called Working my way back to you. Not having heard of it before, I clicked on the link and was rewarded with a video of a very young Boyzone. According to one of the comments, it's their very first music video.



I didn't like the song very much at first, but halfway through it it sounded better. And after listening to it again I find that it's not bad! It seems that they also sang a remake of this song (with half the lyrics in French) with Alliage (a group that I had never heard of before) The Boyzone guys already look like their familiar selves (to me!) in this video.



Okay, actually the funny thing is just arriving (I kinda blab, don't I? :P Though I found the first video pretty funny as well ;P ) I found another gem while browsing through the Boyzone videos...this!



It's Craig Harper's audition in Britain's Got Talent 2008, simply hilarious! :D

I didn't catch what he said when they asked him his age, but according to a comment (again), it was "thirty plus VAT" (UK sales tax, called Value Added Tax) which means 30 + 17.5 PERCENT and makes him 35.

Hope you enjoy the videos! (the same ones are linked and embedded)

Excel...not!

Note: red=rant
You may skip ahead to normal-coloured text.

Excel is SO stupid! I type in a number followed by the % symbol, and it converts the cell to a percentage. So far, so good. But later, if I change the cell format to general, text, or number (or probably whatever else) it changes my percentage into a number. A number less than 1. It's not even smart enough to just take away only the percent symbol, it has to change what I wrote. I would understand if it did that for the format "number", but general and text…well, if I chose that it means that I want what I wrote to be what's in the cell, doesn't it? So instead of typing it once, I have to type the percentage in, then change the format to text, and THEN retype the percentage because Excel thinks it's very smart, "helping" me to change what I wrote. GRRR…

It isn't the first time it's happened, which is why it's so frustrating! Imagine if you want to change the format of a whole lot of cells at the same time…

Next time I shall think ahead and change the cell format to text first.

I actually like Excel a lot, but there are these little things that make me wonder sometimes...what on earth were those Excel programmers thinking?!

Another weird thing Excel does is about dates. It sometimes converts the date automatically, like when I type 06/2008, Excel will convert it to June 2008 (something like that) But in the cell, instead of 06/2008, it suddenly contains 01/06/2008. And here comes the coup de grace: if I convert it into text or a number, it turns into 39600. I have no idea how that number is calculated, I'd appreciate it if someone can tell me! I tried 12/2008, and the number it gives me is 39783. Anyone want to solve the puzzle? I can't be bothered right now...if I'm bored one day I might give it a try! lol

By the way, I saw a princess in the bus today. She was wearing a blue dress complete with a tiara and a wand (er, a fairy princess maybe? :P ) Okay, it was a little girl. I wonder where she was going/coming back from...

Internship reading

I've decided to start another reading list, like I did last summer. Thanks to my adding every book I read to the Visual Bookshelf application on Facebook, I managed to get the list of books I read from when I finished my first semester.

The first six books were Kak Reen's...she left them for me before moving. (thanks again!)

1. The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
2. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
3. Further Under the Duvet - Marian Keyes (a lovely relaxing read, it's like several short articles)
4. The Sky is Falling - Sidney Sheldon
5. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
6. The Love Trainer - Julia Llewellyn

Then two e-books:

7. Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
8. Mr. Cavendish, I Presume - Julia Quinn

And now I'm attacking the Humanités library in INSA :D I've just borrowed three books but I'm not sure which one I'll be reading first. I'll post a full list after I finish my internship! :)

As I lay me down to sleep

On Sunday while listening to the radio online, I heard two familiar songs. I love those songs, but I had never known what their titles were, or who was the singer. Here they are:

As I lay me down, by Sophie B. Hawkins

Mouth, by Merril Bainbridge



I have no idea when I've heard them before, or why they are so familiar. Does anyone know? (I've never even heard of either singer before)