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