Existential Star Wars

Presented without comment, because what good are words, flung against the abyss?

Paris Videos

I have discovered that the movie editing software I have doesn't completely suck. I have started going through some of my videos, with their lame sound and questionable purpose, and modifying them into something better.

Here are some of the Panoramas of Paris I filmed last year, and smushed them together with some 'marker' photos and appropriate music.

Expect more of these as I go through my library for inspiration. They will be posted as I complete them to my flickr account.

Paris: Photography update

I have spent the last several nights uploading photos I took in Paris to my flickr account. I had +860 pictures to review and I uploaded them at full resolution, so it took quite a while.

I picked over 300 pictures and a few videos to share, so I won't be posting them all here. The set is in chronological order, with the oldest pictures first, so you can follow my trip along, monument by monument.

I used specific date tags if you want to view each day on its own:
10 APR | 11 APR | 12 APR | 13 APR | 14 APR | 15 APR | 16 APR

Here are some cool monuments and Museum tags to view:
Louvre | Eiffel Tower | Museum of Arts and Metres | Notre Dame Cathedral

I was downloading pictures off my camera every night for backup, so if I ever lost my camera, I would at least have all the previous pictures safe. Reviewing them nightly I was getting annoyed as the inside/no flash shots mandated by most museums were coming out blurry and the resolution of my videos was terrible.

I still managed to score some great shots from the trip, like this tower "upskirt" so it wasn't so bad in the end, but the shortcomings of my camera became quite clear. These issues were echoed by a CNet review that came out after I had purchased the camera, so don't be surprised if a new camera is in my future.

Back in town - Travel Update

According to a stack of visa receipts and various reports from the web, I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday morning I was in Argentina. I will be updating my flickr account with appropriate pictures, and this blog with suitable stories from the road.

The following is a picture from my window whilst in France. Drink it in.

I sleep now.

Books on my nightstand

I had big plans to make the "Books on my nightstands" entry on Slashboing a regular feature. However it seems only to come up yearly, despite the comings and goings of books from my library. For those who wish to know, here are the current works sitting beside my bed for reading and research.

The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
Reason: Prepare myself against the inevitable Zombie apocalypse.

Paris: Inside Out
Reason: Prepare myself for an inevitable trip to Paris.

Lovecraft Tales - H.P. Lovecraft
Reason: Prepare myself for writing Steampunk fiction that inevitably crosses unrestrained science with psyche curdling horror.

Firefly: The Official Companion Volume 2 - Joss Whedon
Reason: Firefly was an amazing series, and it doesn't look like we will be seeing any more episodes or movies anytime soon. The occasional Firefly comic book is not feeding the need so I have this collection on hand.


Previously on Slashboing

• Top 5 Nightstand books (May 2007)
• Books on my Nightstand (May 2006)

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

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.

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!

Current Fixation: Pho

I've been on a Pho kick for a few months now. Pho (pronounced "fuh") is a Vietnamese noodle soup that combines Chinese, French and native influences into a bowl of pure joy.

I am not alone in touting this man-soup love. Every Friday our company drives about 50 blocks to have huge bowls of Beef Sate. We have taken to wearing red shirts on this day to prevent sate splash damage. One of our crew has even started wearing sate goggles to prevent eye damage from the savoury soup. Yes, we are serious Pho lovers.

To make our Phodays extra special, I have created gang colours for our company to wear. Group Pictures will follow.



In other photastic news, the blog Phofever seeks to track every Pho place in the United States along with reviews. When they include Canada to the guide, I plan on adding to it.

Name that emblem

Day 295 - Name that emblem
Originally uploaded by Drhaggis.

I picked up this pin on eBay for a steampunk costume because it looks cool, and the symbology is not readily recognized. Then I thought I should probably know what the pin meant before I starting wearing it.

The left hand side has a coloured enamel bandage wrapped skull, while the right side is an embossed profile of a living man. The bottom has a torch and the letters "EMRB". The pin was made in France, and the auction was French, so I'm presuming that the organization that used this pin was also French.

I have googled the letters "EMRB" and "ERMB" and nothing meaningful has come up.

The question to you is: What is this? What does it represent.?

Doctor Who versus the French

I usually try not to make two posts in a row with embedded youtube clips, but this one makes me laugh enough to warrant a breach of protocol.

Without further commentary, here is "Doctor Who versus the French".