This kid's got talent!

I've been watching the Britain's Got Talent videos.

I suppose almost everyone has heard of Susan Boyle and her audition. She got through to the finals, but I'm rooting more for this dancer, Aidan Davis:


(his semi-final performance is here, it even has special effects that "clone" him, making it even more spectacular)

The judges mentioned George Sampson, 2008's winner. Here's his performance in the finals:



And here are some other dance acts that made the finals this year:
Flawless - they're really creative, do check out their semi-final performance!
Stavros Flatley - a Greek father and son act; their dance is mainly funny.
Diversity - a dance group like Flawless, also with pretty creative choreographies.

The links are to the Youtube videos of their auditions. All the finalists' semi-final videos can be found on the official website's playlist.

Most videos don't allow embedding...though here's one that does. It's a grandfather and granddaughter team. The girl is twelve...I can hardly believe it; she looks as old as me!


(I like this performance a lot better than their audition. In the audition, the grandpa's voice sounded a lot raspier...maybe it just didn't suit the song?)

It seems that the 2009 finals are tonight...go go Aidan! :P

Patricia Highsmith's redemption

Just wanted to mention that Patricia Highsmith redeemed herself (in my eyes, at least) with another book, The Blunderer.

This book is about a man who wishes that his wife were dead. But she dies without him killing her, and he becomes suspected of killing her.

Frankly, just a few chapters into the book, I was wishing the wife would just hurry up and die! She is just so awful. She accuses her husband of infidelity with another woman when the husband hasn't even noticed the woman. (and has only met her twice) When her husband wants a divorce, she threatens to kill herself. And she also has the nerve to say that she doesn't want a divorce because she "knows" her husband's affair will blow over. (and this is just amongst other things)

I'm not giving away any spoilers with these details...the actual story is about what happens after she is found dead. I liked the story...but the ending was rather disappointing. Let's just say that it wasn't quite neatly wrapped up. There were a few possibilities for what happened, or would happen. I would have preferred the ending to be more conclusive, and not hanging in the air like it was left.

There are several other books by this author in INSA's Humanités library...I shall try reading some more ^_^

What's your PeopleRank?

Thanks to this blog, I learned about this site. You can type in your name and discover your online "presence". I checked mine, and my "PeopleRank" is 1.8 (out of 10, according to the first blog I linked)

From the results, it seems that the most of my online information comes from my participation in the table-tennis association in INSA. Not only is there the official Sport-U Lyon site that has my info (e-mail, phone number), there are also two blogs for the association that have those info. (I made one of those!) There is even an Excel document which records our participation in the Thursday tournaments at Gerland!

I also found out that somehow Yahoo gives out my INSA e-mail address...I wonder why. I can't even remember when I gave Yahoo my INSA address.

So much for keeping my e-mail address private. But if an address were to be leaked out...I'd sure prefer it to be my INSA one (since it's so easy to contruct the address from a name), so I guess it's okay.

And then there are two other "popular" results...minesweeper websites and Facebook. Minesweeper websites usually have my full name and nothing else, so that's not a problem...and Facebook? Well, there's my profile picture that can be seen...which I was pretty aware of (and that is why I don't put my photo there ;P ) And with the privacy settings which I have gone through several times already, if my contact info gets leaked out into online searches, I'll sue Facebook!

Also, it seems that I'm listed on the French online phone directory. Not surprising, since I was already in the paper directory during my second year in Angoulême (I remember that we got the phone book in our mailbox...weird. How come I never got one in Lyon? lol)

And how about namesakes? I found two. One of bigulo.com, some dating site where "I" am a 21 year old girl. The other is on mylife.com, which is, according to itself (lol), America's #1 people search. There "I" am a 23 year old. Hmm... I can't remember signing up for it, and when I tried to log in with the e-mail address and password I usually use for these purposes (useless sites, I mean), it didn't recognize me. So I concluded that it wasn't me. lol

Then, for investigative purposes (lol again) I decided to inverse my surname and given name. This gave me a PeopleRank of 1.5, but I found a blog by an ex-schoolmate...she posted my photo on her blog! (ceh...didn't ask for permission...just filched it off Facebook :P )

Actually, halfway through writing this post, I suddenly felt like writing this in French. After all, the site is in French. So what am I supposed to do in that case, huh? Huh? Huh? -_-

Free straws

There is a kind of yoghurt here in France that comes with free straws. (I just bought it, which is what prompted this post) And mind you, the straws aren't for drinking the yoghurt. This is the thick kind of yoghurt that you're supposed to eat with a spoon. (and proof is, for a pack of 8, there are only 6 free straws)

Now why on earth would anyone want free straws? The straws aren't even especially pretty (and too short for me to be able to fold anything with them) So I started thinking.

In Malaysia no one wants free straws. It's like...duh! You go to the nearest kopitiam¹ and you can get as many free straws as you like. Or those fast food restaurants like KFC or McDonalds. (come to think of it, we can get those straws in France as well)

But! One difference is in "normal" restaurants. In Malaysia cold drinks always come with a straw. But...I've dug into the depths of my mind for an instance when I had a straw come with a drink in a restaurant in France...and I can't find one. The drinks come either in their glasses, or in their original bottle/can with a glass. (Ma, you will sure like this :P) I guess a straw is considered too informal, too casual.

So the straws are probably for children... I've also seen "flavoured" straws before...for drinking milk. On the package it says that when you drink plain milk through the straw, the milk will become chocolate/vanilla/strawberry-flavoured, depending on the straw. And one straw is for a glass (200ml) of milk, if I remember correctly. I remember thinking of buying a packet for WW, but then I forgot all about it :P I'll have to see whether it's still being sold...

Oh yeah, I just remembered...the lassi in Indian restaurants come with a straw. Dinie was just talking about it when we went to an Indian buffet last Saturday, about how a lassi in another restaurant was so think that you needed two straws. How on earth could I have forgotten that? (so let me know if you can think of any other "straw" moments, will ya?)

Besides, I believe there is less use of ice cubes in French restaurants as well... (again, I rack my brains) Cold drinks come chilled, not with ice cubes to chill-and-dilute them.

Hmm...what else? :P

Small bottles of yoghurt drink in France don't come with a straw either...unlike the Vitagen (and all its descendants :P ) in Malaysia. The cover can easily be poked through with one of those Vitagen straws...but they just don't come with straws! What conclusion can we make...that the French learn to drink at a tender age while Malaysians learn how to suck through straws before drinking? lol

Well, I'll stop here...if my imagination runs a bit wilder I might have enough material for a second edition... With all this "cultural" thinking (and blabbing about it in writing)... I'd soon have enough material for a second PPH²! lol

Glossary :P
¹coffee shop
²Projet Personnel en Humanités, a project for INSA where we have to find a subject to "reflect upon", write a report, and then do a presentation.

Introducing Mr. Ripley

I just read Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith, a book about a murderer who has new neighbours who might have found him out.

On the front cover, the Times says "The Ripley books are marvellously, insanely readable."

Readable? Yes. Page turner? Not really. Marvellous? Sorry, but no.

It was actually quite interesting, looking through the eyes of a killer. You see how normal he is, in everyday life...but faced with a problem, one of the solutions is: to kill.

And when I say "normal", I assure you that I mean really normal. And nice. At a moment in the book Ripley was thinking "good neighbourly relations are important" or something to that effect. I can just imagine the neighbours' reactions if ever Ripley got caught. "Oh, he was such a nice man! Whoever would have thought?!"

But the story moves a little to slowly for my liking...I wonder whether it's just this one, whether the others (yes, there are more books about Mr. Ripley) are more exciting. After all, it would depend on the problem faced by our Mr. Ripley, wouldn't it?

I have another book by Patricia Highsmith lined up to read...one not about Ripley, though. (I wonder whether I had already read any of her books) There were other Ripley books in the library when I borrowed this one, but I thought it best to try one first...in case I didn't like it at all. Now I might try another one...though if it turns out to be as slowly evolving, I'd probably drop the Ripley books altogether!

Phua Chu Kang SARS rap...and more!

I totally have to share this video. I've heard the rap before, but I doubt I've seen the video...it was probably all over Singaporean TV?


Under W can find me lah! :P

For non-Malaysians/Singaporeans, you might not know who Phua Chu Kang is, so I'll explain a bit: Phua Chu Kang is the title character from a (very very famous) TV series, he is a contractor (which is why he talks about discounts at the end of the video) The English used in this rap is basically Singaporean/Malaysian English (I doubt there's much difference between the two, except that there are maybe more Malay words in Manglish?)

And the guy who says "even if your boss is a jerk" is actually one of his workers in the series :P

The actor is Gurmit Singh, and Phua Chu Kang is his signature role. But I found another video starring him, this time playing a guy who dreams of being a hero and saving the girl. This one is in four parts, so I only linked the first.

I also found some episodes of Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd (the first part of the first episode is linked). In Singapore the company was called Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd (Pte Ltd = Sdn Bhd in Malay), and the series has ended. Now they're "expanding" to Malaysia, that is, shooting the series in Malaysia with the storyline of Phua Chu Kang moving to Malaysia. I couldn't watch it on TV since I'm in France, but now I can watch it on Youtube! (I don't know whether all the episodes are uploaded though...and these videos look like they're direct from TV, even including commercial breaks)

Edit: The Malaysian sequel is nowhere as good as the original Singaporean version, in my opinion...you'd be better off watching one of the old episodes...such as this one.

Would you prefer pasta or noodles?

On my way back from work today, I was surprised to see this upon reaching Saxe-Gambetta, a metro station where I change lines.

a sea of humans
(sorry, picture quality VERY bad!)

I think that the only time I saw so many people (more, probably) was when they cut the B line for a strike, and everyone took the A line instead to change at another station to the D line. There were so many people that Bakary and I decided to take the D line (that we had just gotten off) another stop further where we could take the tram directly back to INSA. It takes longer that way, so maybe it wasn't worth it anyway...but then we couldn't quite know how long we would have to wait at the metro station! What's more, a metro arrived while we were there, but it went straight through without stopping. I wonder why...I must remember to take a newspaper tomorrow morning! lol (every morning when I arrive at the metro station, there are people distributing free newspapers (mini ones)...I never take it because I can't read in the metro anyway, and at home I don't even have enough time to read everything on my Google Reader!)

Then I went to the INSA library to return and borrow books. I have a four-day weekend coming up, so I need books! lol No...actually what I really need is to get started on my internship report...but I have no idea where to begin!

Okay, but I'm digressing...the reason why I wrote about going to the library is that I saw this on the way:


Notice anything that shouldn't be there? (click on the photo for actual size, then it'll be easier to spot what's out of place!)

If you don't want to figure it out or if you give up, here's a zoom (actually a second photo):


What on earth is Spongebob doing up there?! I'm wondering whether it's a remnant of the 24H weekend! (see previous post) :P

And I wanted to talk about this as well...at my internship there are two guys from CPE, which is an engineering school beside INSA, where there are a few Malaysians as well. Then one day at lunch (at my internship, I mean, not CPE lol) somehow the conversation turned to noodles, and one of the guys was saying that the Malaysians (girls, so I knew exactly who they were lol) had made some kind of noodle dish for some event (sorry I know I'm being vague, but I haven't got the details :P) Then he went on to describe the noodles...saying that they were "longer than usual", "like this" *shows length with hands*...and I was like "those are like normal noodles...", and he said that to him normal noodles were "like this", and pointed to the pasta on my plate.

And no, the pasta was not spaghetti. It was tortellini. You know, the spirally thing? Er...I don't call that noodles. lol

After all, the dictionary told me that pâtes = pasta and nouilles = noodles. It's true that I've already heard of noodles being called "pâtes", but that was the first time I heard of pasta being called "nouilles"...

'Tis a bad year for watches.

This weekend was the 24H event in INSA. (type 24H into my blog search bar if you want to know what it is...I can't be bothered explaining it every year :P)

I went there both days, and it was pretty good. What's more, the weather this year was great, unlike last year!

I didn't take photos of everything, but here's what I've got:

the Poweriser

I met up with Alberto, a Mexican exchange student. He wanted to try the Poweriser, a kind of jumping stilts. I didn't try it...even though it looked really fun, I was pretty sure that I would never gain control of that thing. I prefer my feet flat on the ground, thank you very much.

Here's Alberto at the beginning:


And at the end:

Yeah, I've got control of these things! (okay, he didn't actually say that :P)

Then there were the wood games, where I spent the most of my time. There were lots of different games and puzzles, some where you have to figure out how to get a string untangled, and some where you have to arrange blocks of wood. There are lots of other games, but I can't write about them all...

I took photos of two "arranging" puzzles that I did.

The first one is a puzzle that I played when I was small, but it had been such a long time that I had forgotten how to do it. Here's a photo of the pieces that we have to arrange to form shapes. There they asked us to make a square, something I had done loads of times before, but I had totally forgotten how to do it. There were 3 other people there and we worked together...and I finally managed it with a little "clue" I remembered. Here's the finished square:


In another puzzle, we had to arrange the blocks with each flower beside its stalk. I did it with another girl who happened to be there.

Yeah, teamwork helps! :P

Then there was this science booth where there are those little tricks using scientific facts. Here's something the lady in charge was showing to this group of four people (and all the bystanders):


She had them sit on four chairs and then lie down on each other...then she took away all the chairs. I had seen this before, so I didn't ask about it...but one thing I didn't quite understand was that they gave each of the guys a drink of water (through a tube) after taking away the chairs. I didn't get what that was for...

Then there was this at another "booth" (it was more a group of tables and chairs than a booth)...I took a photo simply because I wanted to say that I managed to do it :D


You have to move the ring (it's on the left, on the black patch in this photo) along the wire to the other end (the yellow patch) without touching it. It's like in the Takeshi's Castle game show...except that it was much easier since the ring was quite big. It still took me a few tries...had to get the hang of it, I guess. A bell trills if you touch the circuit.

But today wasn't all great...it was a pretty unlucky day for me! First a branch (luckily not a very big one) fell down and hit my thumb while I was sitting down trying one of the wood games (it was a really windy day) Nothing serious though...but then later (much later, I mean, it has nothing to do with the incident with the branch) I realised that my watch wasn't on my wrist any longer. Backtracking didn't help me find it, and I think the clasp must have come undone and it must have fallen on the grass somewhere....which means it is very very difficult to find! And I'm not even sure where exactly it fell off...I realised it was missing near the tennis courts behind the Gymnase C, and the last time I remembered checking it was on the lawn in front of Humanités. (so for those of you who know INSA...there's a great big surface to search!)

I retraced my path (what I could remember of it, anyway) but couldn't find it...so I went to tell the people organising the 24H that I had lost my watch. Now it's all left to luck...

So for me to get my watch back, first someone has to find it (tough), and then that person must be kind enough to get it to the 24H people. But maybe no one will even find it if it's in the grass, and the next time someone cuts the grass the blade will smack my watch and split/crack it. But of course, by that time the rain might have gotten to it first and "drowned" it. (allow me to be morbid, this isn't even a living thing) Or if, if, if...someone finds it a week later, safe and sound...no one would ever think of it being lost during the 24H, so they won't know how to give it back even if they wanted to. So. Nothing short of a near-miracle will get my watch back.

Yeah, yeah, some of you, who know that I have several watches, will say that losing one watch isn't that serious...it's bound to happen anyway. Yeah, I agree. It happens. (like Stephen Clarke says, merde happens) But still, this has been a pretty bad year for my watches, even if it's coincidence.

When I came back from Malaysia in September, I had 3 watches to last me the whole year. Two of them already died since September (their batteries died, I mean (I hope!)), and I was left with one (not counting another one that I don't wear but put in my pocket when I play sports) And now this last one is lost, and probably already crushed by some bigfoot :'( Luckily this year I had ordered something from Yves Rocher and received a free watch. It's not the greatest-looking watch, especially the clasp which is pretty...um, enormous, actually. I'll have to wear it tomorrow since I don't have another one to wear, but I shall try getting that clasp taken off...either by replacing it with another clasp or simply a string.

Still. I really liked that watch. It's the one with the bracelet to match. It's almost my favourite...the only drawback was that it's a little loose. But there's still no other watch I can say I like better. *sniff sniff* Argh.

Navigating helicopters

I didn't really write about the SSI (Séminaire Sport and Innovation), but the result of it all was that I got to go to the Thales site in Valence for a visit. So today we left INSA at 7am, with those from the second semester.

Note: This is not going to be a detailed description.

We arrived at Thales nice and early (the bus journey took about one and a half hours), so we had plenty of time for the coffee (or tea) and pastries that they had prepared for us. Then they presented us some of their equipment, one for measuring acceleration (and so the speed and position as well) and another for measuring altitude and speed (like for aircrafts)

After that we had a presentation of their salles blanches (Wikipedia tells me that it's called cleanroom in English), their "quality control rules", etc. Then there was a sensor for drilling for petrol (and some other sensors)...and a headgear for army pilots.

The headgear was pretty interesting...it controls the aim of the aircraft's gun, so that it is aiming where the person wearing it is looking at. So each piece of headgear has to be custom-made to fit the person's head snugly and take into account the position of his eyes. (Cool, huh? I want one...it's like "Hey, I'm looking at you, so don't make me angry or else I'll hit the button and shoot you! lol)

We had lunch at the company canteen (they paid for us, of course), and in the afternoon we had a demonstration of Thales' TopDeck, a new helicopter control panel. They had a simulator with the scenery projected on 3 walls (you know, where the walls are slightly angled so that they're like "enclosing" you somehow) An ex-pilot came to show us how the control panel works, and after that we each had a go at navigating :D Like he warned us, it looked much easier when he was doing it. I am sorry to say that even though my take-off went quite well, later the (virtual) helicopter started spinning round and round 'cos I had completely forgotten about the foot pedal and was too occupied with keeping it horizontal (there are 3 different controls, one for each hand and the foot pedals). I didn't attempt landing...the helicopter was already spinning out of my control!

Actually we didn't all do take-off and landing, some people took off where the previous person left off, and some did the take-off and we reset the simulator because the helicopter crashed (which was actually what I did right after Marvin passed me the controls with the helicopter in a perfectly stationary position in the sky, so I got to try taking off instead :P ) or was out of control.

We got brochures and a Thales cap each, and we took group photos (one of which with everyone wearing the cap) They said they would send us the photos...so I hope to put them here when they (finally) do!

I initially had reservations about this visit; I wasn't quite sure whether I would enjoy it. But I really did (despite the very small number of people I knew on this visit), and that was a pleasant surprise! ^_^

Perplexed?

I am a word which means to bewilder or perplex.
You can get lost in my last four letters.

What am I?

Answer below.















ANSWER: Amaze