Paris by Arrondissement

Paris is a beautiful and heavily photographed city. No seriously. But you don't have to take my word for it. Here is a great sampling of flickr photo groups delineated by arrondissements of the city.

• First
• Seventh
• Eighth
• Ninth
• Tenth
• Eleventh
• Twelfth
• Thirteenth
• Fourteenth
• Fifteenth
• Sixteenth
• Eighteenth
• Nineteenth
• Twentieth

Voila!

Image:Paris Old Metro Signboard
Originally uploaded by pedrosimoes7. CC licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic

Awareness test

How many passes does the team in white make?



Now you know.

Superheroes rock my dreams

For your amusement, I present an unedited description of an awesome dream I had last night:

I had Batman's cape, a wizard's wand and possessed some of Superman's powers. I used the shadow of my cape and a series of concealment spells to infiltrate a mountain controlled by Lex Luthor and an army of dark wizards and Orcs. Once inside I used my heat vision and cold breath to forge purple Kryptonite into some kind of lens that I would use to defeat Luthor.

Any Freudians or comic-book geeks want to take a crack at this one?

How I spent my trip to Chile

I spent my recent trip to Chile at work in a maintenance shop in an open pit mine. My work can send me almost anyplace on the planet. There is the possibility of ending up in Greece, Croatia, or Guinea. There is also equal likelihood of ending up in a very small town in Illinois or Minnesota. Some of our trip itineraries look like the the doted-line-on-a-map montage from an adventure film. However once we end up where we are going, work is work, and a shop is a shop and there is little time to sightsee.

My trip to Chile was typical, with a total of forty-fife minutes of free time in La Serena, a popular beach resort. However I took a lot of pictures, enough to gain the moniker "paparazzi" from the local guys we were working with. I tried to take pictures of everything I ate, at the request of Mr. Smith, however the formality of working lunches and business meetings made this difficult. I did however eat very well, and got to sample a lot of typical local food. Pastel de choclo, Pisco Sours, and Cazuela de pollo (left) made this trip very comfortable.

My hotel was across the street from Iglesia Santo Domingo, a great looking church and a popular destination. My room overlooked a palm tree and a pool. Very nice indeed.

I wish I got a picture of the LAN airlines stewardesses. Changing planes in Miami, I watched ten air hostesses go through security together. The LAN airlines outfit has retro red skirts and neckerchiefs. The temporal displacement of travel and timezones made the sight very surreal, as if they were getting ready to board in 1962.

It was a good trip over all, despite the long hours and short-notice inconvenience.

[Chile Trip Photo set on Flickr]

Be Kind Rewind: Lessons learnt

I recently saw Michel Gondry's latest film "Be Kind Rewind" I thought I share some of the lessons I learnt from the film.

• Make movies
• Make other people's movies
• Make your own movies
• Involve your friends
• You can make what ever you want out of what ever you have
• Tell your local stories, even if you have to make it up
• Support local businesses
• Kiss the girl

Dracosymstice

DragonCon is the best and largest science fiction/fantasy/pop culture/awesome convention known to mortal fans. The end of February marks the longest time between these events, and I have dubbed this long, dark time between conventions "Draco Symstice."

Obviously 'Draco' is Latin for 'dragon', while 'syn–' or 'sym–' is Greek for 'together' or 'united', as in 'symposium'. '-stitium' is Latin for a stoppage. I could have minted the term as "Draco Constice," which would make the phrase completely of Latin origin, but it doest have the same ring to it. When you make up a holiday of your own, you get a certain latitude in naming it.

We mark the winter solstice with Christmas festivities, which are based heavily on the pagan Yuletide festivities. Since DragonCon is such a wonderful event and a decidedly pagan kick-ass party, Draco Symstice needs to have similar observations of fellowship and feasting.

Worldwide Stuff on my Cat

For the last two months I have been receiving anonymous "stuff on my cat" postcards from around the world. They are addressed to "Dr Haggis," my online handle, but arriving to my home. Not a lot of people know both. I have questioned all the usual suspects, and all have pled ignorant.

I have gotten wigs from South Africa and vintage bands from Amsterdam.

How much longer can this go on? How many more stuff piled cats can I expect? Is there a big finish?

See the whole set on Flickr.

Happy Valentines Day

by R. Stevens of Diesel Sweeties.

Headline Hyjinks

As a follow up to my "Best Headline in Recorded History" post from 2006, I bring you this offering:

"Ex-prison boss: Drunken orgies tainted system"

One might think that the funny part of this sentence is "Drunken orgies," but that is not the case. The funniest part of this headline is the word "taint."

Thoughts on Hugo

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes from ABC's Lost may be one of the most sympathetic and endearing characters on current television. On an island full of secrets and lies, Hurley remains an earnest and a loyal friend.

Current Fixations

Here are some of my current fixations:

Steampunk.

This is still a major interest for me. I am a moderator of the Steampunk Gear Flickr pool, and I am planning a "Steampunk Seer" costume for Dragoncon in August.

Psychics / Tarot Card Art

In order to make a great "seer" costume, I have been investigating the symbols and practises of the occult, the workings of H.P. Lovecraft and of psychics in general. Some very interesting stuff. I have been on the hunt for some great Tarot Card images to incorporate into my outfit. I think I'm partial to "The Hanged Man" and "The Magician" but I have yet to find an incarnation of them that will work with the steampunk theme.

Skeptics
Now I'm not a believer in divination or psychics so it is kind of ironic that I would choose to make a costume depicting a psychic to wear at Dragoncon, when James Randi, one of the great debunkers of faith healers and spoon benders will be there. I've been a big fan of "The Amazing Randi" since I was a kid, and putting on really bad magic shows for my friends and family. His demonstration of "Psychic Surgery" on the Johnny Carson show has stuck with me to this day. His quest to instill rational thinking, and displace superstitions is noble and inspiring.

Kit Fisto

I have been slowly completing my Kit Fisto collection, which now includes most of the action figures and toys depicting the great grinning green Jedi from the Star Wars prequels. I even have some original sketches from the Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon series. I have also recently created a flickr group called Everybody loves Fisto for fans to show their love.

Paris

I've been planning a trip to Paris so I have been familiarizing myself with the language, history, and architecture of the city. When doing some research to prepare for a trip, I often try to see what current fixations of mine can be found in the new city. For example, when I went to LA for Celebration IV, I also found the filming location of Kirby Plaza for the season finale for "Heroes".

When planning for Paris I was seeing what "steampunk" things I could find. Then it hit me. I didn't have to seek out steampunk elements in Paris because Paris IS Steampunk.

The Eiffel Tower is 7,300 tons of steel and rivets that was the rally point for Santos-Dumont's Airship in 1901, and now in 2007 the tower sports a restaurant named after the science fiction author, Jules Vern.

Enough said.

Introduction to a book I will never write

"The image of you standing atop Mt. Rushmore in your coonskin cap has been scared into my retinas like a cattle brand. I know we were seconds away from being nabbed by agents from half a dozen organizations with initials, but why did you jump off Lincoln's noggin with the diamonds?

You left me there to be tackled by a stout man from the ATF and a lovely woman from the FWS. They still write me, but do you?"

Blending Noris: When memes meet.

I could not resist posting this. Enjoy!

Paris based Humour

Crossing lolcat grade internet humour with planning a trip to Paris, I have forged this offering. We must name this sub-sub-genre appropriately. LOLParis or LOLFrance seems to obvious. I think it may work with a "french laugh" which would be spelt "hoh-hoh-hohParis" or perhaps "hohParis". It's funnier if you say it aloud.

Like most things, it is less funny if you have to explain it.

Trek Season Song

Here is a nice video to help you remember which episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation occurred in which season.

[Link to video should the embed fail]

52 Weeks

After finishing the 365 days project last September, I have been both relieved that I didn't have to carry my camera around anymore, and itching to start a new project.



I decided to join the 52 Weeks project to fill the photographic void in my timetable. It is a similar project, wherein one takes a weekly self portrait and posts it to Flickr. This may be harder to do, without the constant burden of creativity, the ability to slack increases.

One may think that with a week spent planing, setting up and executing a photo, the quality and creativity of each shot should be superior to that of a daily photograph. However week one has me inserting the "Rock Band" headstock in my mouth.

More on that later.

Best and only 2007 Movies

Here is the definitive list of films I saw in the theatre during the 2007 calendar year, with a (very) short review of each. A keen person may be able to glean a top five list from this, but you shouldn't strain yourself.

• Zodiac

Very good by-the-numbers retelling of one of the most interesting unsolved cases in US history.

• TMNT

Good kiddie fare. Makes sly references to the previous (live action) films. Kind of repetitive from an adult perspective.

• Grindhouse

Gritty. Violent. Machine Gun Leg.

• Spiderman 3

Dancing Emo Spiderman limps out of the franchise with a mediocre showing. Love Bruce Campbell.

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's end

Disappointing and derivative ending to what could have been a great series.

• Ocean's Thirteen

Makes up for a weak "Ocean's Twelve" with a great heist flick, dripping in style.

• Ratatouille

Surprisingly touching, great looking film, though not as rich as some earlier Pixar work.

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Ass whooping wizard-fighting-wizard action. I regret not seeing this more times in IMAX.

• The Simpsons Movie

Good continuation of the series, nothing earth shattering, but worth it for both new and jaded fans.

• Stardust

Sexy steampunkish tale, with an awkward ending. Captain Shakespeare for the win.

• Superbad

I laughed throughout. I'm not proud of that.

• The Golden Compass

Uneven adaptation of a fine book, thought the set and costume design is worth it.

This is a slight improvement on last year, when I only saw 11 new films. But it looks like I averaged seeing one new film a month, and half the time I went with friends, so I'm doing OK.

It is of some note that I did not see 300 or Transformers, two huge films in fandom this year. I can't explain my absence at either one, and no excuses will be given.

Happy new year everyone!

My kind of French

After taking about seven years of French language classes, this video by the "Flight of the Conchords" demonstrates my level of French vocabulary and comprehension. I even went as far as taking it as an option, after it no longer became a mandatory requirement. I was working under bad advice from my counsellors and parents that a second language was required to gain admission to university. Thankfully, for my program, it was not.

Voila!

Inside Jokes Status Report

Here is the current status of some inside jokes that Slashboing has been monitoring:

Beans: Obviously.
Hippo: Maybe.
Waffles: N'pas.

More on these as they develop.

That is all.

Nablopomo: I did it.

I have successfully finished Nablopomo 2007, posting to Slashboing once a day for the month of November. I'm fairly proud of my content, with very few posts for the sake of posting.

I'll be taking a bit of a hiatus for the month of December, with fewer posts than usual.

Peace out.