Skywhales [en]

[fr] Voici un merveilleux court-métrage d'animation (11 minutes) que j'avais vu à la télé il y a des années de cela, sans jamais pouvoir remettre la main dessus, puisque je n'en connaissais pas le nom. Regardez-le si vous ne l'avez jamais vu.

I saw this lovely short animation film many many years ago on TV, and didn’t know what it was called. For years I’ve regretted that I had no way to track it down and watch it again. But today, thanks to the magic of the Internets (merci Robin!) I now know that it is called “Skywhales”, and was directed by Phil Austin and Derek Hayes in 1983. And it’s on YouTube.

If you have never seen it, I urge you to do so now. It’s 11 minutes long. Watch it to the end.

I would love to have this in higher quality to watch it on my big screen. If you have a copy or know where to find one, please let me know.

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Films, TMS, et blabla nocturne [fr]

[en] A couple of film recommendations, update on my RSI and some considerations on chronic pain, as well as various random other things (like cats in boxes).

Je trouve mes blablas un peu plus décousus que mes billets. Des tas de petites choses à dire plutôt qu’une grande. J’ai rajouté un “générique” (haha), parlé de deux-trois choses (les liens ci-dessous vous donneront une idée) et pas mal de TMS et de douleur chronique (avec quelques nouvelles d’où j’en suis). Allez, assez de parenthèses, [plongez dans le vif du sujet](http://climbtothestars.org/files/2006-08-03-ctts-stephanie-booth.mp3) [16min41] — oui je sais, c’est un peu long.

Liens pour aujourd’hui:

– [Volver](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441909/)
– [Water](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240200/), [Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150433/), [Fire](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116308/) et [Cracking India](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915943565/)
– [l’Avenir](http://www.resto-rang.ch/info.cfm?canton=LS&restono=1159)
– [Beercasting and Podcasting Thoughts](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2005/03/23/podcasting-and-beercasting-thoughts/)
– [Bagha dans sa boîte](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/205136045/) et [autres chats mis en boîte](http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cat%20box&w=all&s=int)… (trouvé en passant par hasard: [la fiche IMDB qui a donné son nom à mon chat](http://imdb.com/title/tt0063023/))
– [43 Folders](http://www.43folders.com/)
– [ma page sur les TMS (mon histoire)](http://climbtothestars.org/tms)
– [Odeo](http://odeo.com/)

J’ai oublié un lien? Dites-le-moi!

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UK Trip Report [en]

Write-up of my 5-day trip to the UK. Movies with Aleika, Bombay Dreams in London, an IRC meetup.

The nice thing about having a laptop is that you can fire it up on the airplane and type in peace, without being distracted by IRC, instant messaging, e-mail and stats checking, or simple bloghopping. With iTunes in the background playing Bombay Dreams, my only concern is that the plane will start descending towards Geneva shortly.

My trip to the UK was short, and last-minute. I heard some people from #joiito were going to meet up in London on Sunday, I checked my easyjet flights, called Aleika–

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be landing shortly in Geneva. Please return to your seats, make sure your seatbelt is fastened and your seat is in the upright position, and switch off any electronic equipment.”

There goes the laptop, and I now find myself with a post which will be hard to date. Anyway. (Warning: this is a “cheese sandwich” post to some extent, so if you’re bored already, don’t bother reading it.)

Where was I? Yes, last-minute trip. I found a friend to house-and-cat-sit for me, which was nice, and spent the first couple of days at Aleika’s. We did our usual “girls at the movies” thing: get dressed up a bit, leave home late, grab some food which doesn’t come fast enough (well, it took long enough to arrive that I drank my pint of cider almost entirely before the meal, and can now testify that it’s all it takes to make my head spin quite a lot), jump into a cab and run to the theatre (slightly inebriated), only to find that the timings on the internet were incorrect, and we have another half-hour to wait before gleefully drooling all over Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing (OK, I got a bit carried away here, but you get the picture).

I got to spend nearly a whole day alone with Akirno, which was really nice. I didn’t get to see him much on my last visits. He’s grown so much! And he talks so much! (Yes, I know, that’s what I say each time I come back from Birmingham.) He’s a real sweetie. I love him very much.

Unfortunately, I caught a cold (over the top of my first one!) waiting for the bus after Van Helsing, so all my pre-London shopping was done in a rather feverish state. Looking at the bright side of things, it means I didn’t spend as much as I might have, which is a good thing, as my suitcase was already quite full enough (and my bank account empty enough, but that’s another story).

Driving to London went fine. We found a parking space right next to the Apollo Victoria Theatre. (Remember: Sunday matinée shows are a good idea if you’re going to London to see a musical or a play.) Bombay Dreams was really fun, specially as I know most of the songs Rahman re-used for the musical.

Still dressed up (I chose the pink dress), I headed for the #joiito meet-up. Despite this nagging feeling of being somewhat overdressed, and my cold, I had a very nice evening.

As always, though, I had to cope with the frustration of group meet-ups: not enough time to talk with everybody, not enough time to get into interesting conversations with those I talk to. Or maybe I’m just more of a one-to-one person? Anyway, standing invitation for any of you who would want to visit the beautiful town of Lausanne or practice French in the area — just drop me a line, or better (since e-mail is soon to be a dead form of communication, thanks to spam), catch me on IRC.

So, who was there? Well, as I’m nearing the ages of senility, I’m probably forgetting a lot of people, so please bear with me if you’re not mentioned, and let me know if it bothers you too much.

First of all, imajes, my kind host, who was so busy taking me through his iTunes collection on the train back that he missed his home stop. (Can it get worse than that?) Suw prevented me from being the only woman present (I can’t thank you enough for that). Joi was so utterly bored by my presence next to him that he left early to go back to his hotel and sleep — imagine that! (Actually, it seems jetlag also had something to do with it…)

I chatted quite a bit on the way there with imsickofmaps, and on the way back with snowchyld. Hugh managed to mess up my first blogcard somewhat (or whatever those things are called), so I am now the lucky owner of two of them. Gerard aka insert-coin took a nice bunch of photographs and has already put them online. I stole Suw’s camera to take a few photographs, but she’s not home yet, and those I took with my phone are stuck in there until I lay my hands on a Windows PC (thanks, Microsoft).

Apart from bumping my head on a couple of low doorways and leaving my coat there, I brought two things back (not literally) from james’ flat: VoodooPad, which I have not adopted as my official scrap-book application, and a book which made me discover a blog (how often has that happened to you?): Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs, a collection of great weblog posts. I read a few pages, and it looked really neat. It’s on my wishlist now.

I think this post is long enough, for a short trip!

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Indian Things I Love [en]

I’m regularly told that I give a bad image of India (the horror stories and all that). Here is some of the nice stuff that I never write about. Things I like about India.

I’m regularly told that I give a bad image of India (the horror stories and all that). Here is some of the nice stuff that I never write about. Things I like about India:

  • the rivers
  • poha
  • riding on the back of Madhav or Shinde’s bikes
  • the shopping stalls near Laxmi Rd
  • walking in the university campus
  • going to the movies
  • mad shopping binges
  • kathi rolls and kheer kadam from Radhika’s
  • chay
  • the smell of incense and fresh coriander
  • people who smile at me or compliment my dress
  • rickshaw drivers who go by the meter
  • chatting with people on the train
  • coloured clothes and cloth
  • travelling by train
  • shopping
  • changes of plans and surprises when they go the way I want them to
  • painted signs and boards
  • rangoli
  • sari bags
  • krack cream
  • the dampness of the air on arrival in Bombay airport
  • kulfi and gulab jamun
  • butter naan and butter chicken
  • the warmth
  • having all the time in the world to take my bath and eat my breakfast
  • glass bangles and silver anklets
  • reading for days on end
  • children in school uniforms
  • eating on the kitchen floor
  • the cup of tea offered by the internet café manager because I’m waiting for the end of the power outage
  • Hindi and Indian English
  • negociating seating arrangements and luggage storage with fellow train-passengers
  • sticking 46 large stamps on the 6.5kg book parcel I’m sending home
  • the Kal Ho Na Ho ringtone on Anita’s cellphone
  • sweet-smelling flowers in the night
  • Hindi music in the car
  • chay with milk straight out of the goat’s udder at Taramai’s

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More Non-News [en]

Nothing special going on, all ok, not very keen on spending too much time in the Internet café.

Due mainly to how far the closest internet café is situated, and generally the rather bad connections from where I’m staying, I’m pretty reluctant to spend too much time in front of the screen. There are nicer things to do, too, like hanging around with people, reading (I’ve finished my 500-page book, started another), eating nice food, and watching hindi movies.

Not to mention that the keyboards here are hard and hurt my hands.

Checking e-mail isn’t much fun either, as the huge amount of spam and junk mail I get tends to drown out the real messages. At home I have a pretty efficient set of filters organised, but here, even with Thunderbird on a USB drive, it’s not half as good.

Yesterday I went to the new E-Square cinema complex on the university road. It’s just awesome! So new and clean that it could have been in Switzerland. The food and movie (Kal Ho Na Ho) were nice, too. Before going out for dinner, Nisha and the other women in the building had a small function, where each drops in at the other’s place to receive a small gift and things. I took photographs and filmed a bit, so you’ll get to see those next time I come online.

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