bits of news

I've just noticed (right...) that I hadn't updated in many days. So, what's been happening in those numerous days?

• I spent last week end in Hamburg, Germany to celebrate the birthday of a friend

Hadn't seen her in 2 years. She was my boss at the drama club in engineering school and a passionate member of my rocket builders team the year before. One year younger than me and a resume that's way more impressive than mine (ok, it's not that hard, but yet...). She's living in the second wealthiest neighbourhood of Hamburg, and it shows. The area is magnificent, the kindergarten is so amazing it has to be protected by UNESCO and the only two cars I've seen that cost less than 45 000 euros are a collector 2CV and a Clio owned by some french expat. The whole city reminded me of Holland, the same basic architecture, the same atmosphere, the same wealth... The harbour is also a nice place to spend time visiting, especially on a saturday at 7 in the morning. It had been wiped out by bombings during the WWII and the architects have been creative in rebuilding it. The post-industrial style, in conjunction with the overlooking train lines on a metallic bridge, it would make an incredible decor for an anticipation movie.
The birthday itself was great too, a funny mix of people (french, german, spanish, chinese) who speak all of these languages plus english in various combinations. A big conversation carried out in french, german anf english concurrently.
I left monday morning, but I'll return there to visit the place more extensively once my situation has evolved.

• Went to the movies a couple of times:
• Soylent Green, so much creepier now that we're closer from it. Though Charlton Heston's style and acting left me cold.
• Ice Age 2, not as good as I hoped, but that squirrel is just sooo stubborn. A good laugh nonetheless.
• Hoodwinked, Useless, boring, and technically unimpressive. The squirrel was good but not worth the effort. Do you see a trend?
• Monsters, Inc. , maybe my favourite CG movie ever. I bought the DVD discounted at Fnac. Boo is so incredibly cute ( and yet again the cutest thing in the whole movie, yes it's a trend).

• Along with Monsters, Inc. , I bought to other DVDs for close to peanuts:
• Sleepy Hollow, the start of My Depp-Burton-Elfman collection. With Christina Ricci too, a favourite of mine. I may watch it tonight, depending on my endurance.
• L'ours. I am actually not sure I will ever watch the DVD. But it's the kind that you just have to have, no matter what. Will I ever summon the courage to see it again? The first time I saw it at the movies, I cried my eyeballs out, it was 1989, I was 8. It's 2006, I'm 25, but I'll certainly cry my eyeballs out again if I try.

• I've started "the book you shouldn't read", Eragon. It seemed ok went I read the summary in the bookshop. I've read more than 150 pages and it still seems ok, but people confused me when I talked about it. Is it that famous? It's easy to read, entertaining, and it hasn't been written by Tolkien so I don't really see the problem.

• Driving lessons are progressing well. I stalled once yesterday, I reached third gear a number of times, and I didn't kill anyone. More importantly, changing gears is becoming easier, and I finally have some feedback in the pedals, I do feel when I accelerate, maintain my speed, slow down and how hard I break. The lack of feedback may be because I still don't drive hard enough. That'll come, but it's exhilirating to actually drive a car mostly on your own. Navigating and maneuvering will be the next big objectives. I've driven 6 hours.

• I had an interview today with yet another subcontractor. Probably not as interesting as the two previous offers I had but lost, but still in the tests departments. It went well, the interviewer gave me clues that my speech is hitting where I want it to and that I can spin my quirks in a positive light. Answer from their side in 2 weeks.

I'm going to Paris for the Ascension to visit all the people I haven't seen in the longest time (ca va quand meme faire plus de 8 mois depuis le 18 septembre) and to finally visit Eurodisney.

That's it for today, I'm dead tired, so I'll leave Sleepy Hollow for tomorrow...

Inspiration!!

I was reading about a couple of guys who built a lego robot to play Super Mario Bros (lame design, by the way, punching buttons on a preprogrammed timing is just lame, use a camera and digital analysis next time).
side note: hey, trying to teach a computer to play Super Mario Bros may be way cool, or just to start, play Tetris cuz it's simpler. I'll need to try something when I get around buying a webcam.
Well, anyway, so plenty of people bash those two for their design and not using a cam (just like I did) until one comment hits the nerve:

[quote]
21. One could make a lego robot that manipulates the controls of.. another lego robot.. I'm not going any further.
[/quote]

Doesn't that feel powerful? I can already picture a lego construction with a chain of little robots, each controlling the next one until the last controls the first one. An infinite loop made of legos :p

Well, to tell the truth, I've been eyeing the Lego Mindstorms NXT, hitting the shelves in August and going for the bargain price of "around 250 to 300 euros". Can anyone lend me a shoulder, I need to cry... and find a job, so I can have money and buy half a dozen sets, in addition to a car, a computer and an iPod.
The worst is that the specifications of the "brain-brick" is open-source, the magic word :-D Yup, am having shivers from anticipation.