Mais ça s’rait pas ta fête dis donc BILOUTE ?

Curtains down…

That’s it, after a loooong time without any posts, I’m now going to close this blog. It’s not really surprising, but now it’s “official”. But don’t go away just yet! My decision had to do with technical issues, so I’m not really leaving, I’m only moving, to http://your-shoes-and-the-world.blogspot.com/ to be precise.

So update your bookmarks, and let us start anew!

888 Challenge : Book #3 (Eternity Express)

So far so good, 3 books in 10 days, it’s fast enough to be able to finish before the end of the year. This time, I’ve taken a book in a new category, which will be the “books I’ve already read before”. And to begin this category, I just had to pick something by my favourite author : Jean-Michel Truong. And it’s not “Le successeur de pierre” (I’m saving it for later…), but the other novel that I have from him : Eternity Express.

If Eternity Express is much shorter and more predictable than “Le successeur de pierre”, it remains that it’s really well constructed. About halfway through the book, you start to confusely feel what’s going on, and yet you keep hoping that it isn’t true until the very end of the story. And it’s perhaps what I like best about Jean-Michel Truong’s books. They present stories that are staged in the near future, but that are still really plausible. It’s sometimes almost frightening. Sometimes, you’re following a character’s reasoning, and when the conclusion - however horrible it may be - is explained, you stop and realize you’ve not really disagreed so far…

Well, this last paragraph was perhaps not very clear, but I’ll give some example when I’ll write about “Le successeur de pierre”. So now, remember that : if you can read one of Mr Truong’s novel, DO IT !

888 Challenge Status :

Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
#2 Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam (Amélie Nothomb)

Category 2: “Books I’ve already read before”
#1 Eternity Express (Jean-Michel Truong)

Thieves of Fate

Yes, that’s right. Two posts on the same day ! And this time, it’s to bring you some music for the long evenings of this cold month of january. And what’s best : it’s free music. So, as I can sense you’re all dying to know what is this music I’m talking about, let me introduce “Thieves of Fate”.

This album is made of 15 tracks (and 2 bonus not listed on the official tracklist) that are new versions of tracks taken from the (kinda old) video game “Radical Dreamers”. You may not know this game, as it was only released in Japan, but you may know Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger is a really great roleplaying game, and it’s music has been composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. And as it happens, Radical Dreamers is like a sequel to Chrono Cross. Or, more exactly, it’s even more like a prequel to Chrono Cross. The good news is that Mitsuda has been responsible for the music of all three games, and that the scores (and stories for that matter) for Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross share many similarities.

If that doesn’t convince you that this disc is worthy of your attention, let me add this fact : Chrono Cross has some of the best music ever composed for a video game. Yes, it’s that good. So you can imagine how delighted I was when I saw, yesterday, that this remix album was released by OverClocked ReMix. If you’re familiar with the site, you know the quality of the music that’s usually posted there. And if you’re not, please go and have a look: OC ReMix brings together really talented musicians that take songs coming from various video games and reinterpret them in usually very different ways.

Now that you’re aware of where the album comes from, let’s get to what really matters, I mean the music itself. It’s not the first album of this kind released on OC ReMix (there have been aroud ten albums so far), and this album share a common trait with some of its predecessors : the styles used by the different artists are really varied. The first track (one of my favorite) blends a violin into what could have been a track by a math-rock group like toe or LITE (albeit less technical), whereas “Sexy Boy” has a r’n'bish feel woven into a melody not unlike the work of Kashiwa Daisuke (use of “glitches” to break the structure of a sample). There’s also a track which uses only wind and brass instruments, and more conventional rock or electro tracks.

But on the whole, this is really some great music, as expected from guys like Geoffrey Taucer, Darangen or Christian Pacaud, who are amongst my favorite remixers. It was also really fun to hear what better musicians than me could do with “Strange Presentiment”, a track I once tried to do a remix of myself, but never got around to finish. To be honest, it even made me want to try again some time in the future. Who knows…

So, it doesn’t matter if you like video game music or not, if you’re used to instrumental music or not (most of the track are vocal-less), or if you even know Yasunori Mitsuda, Chrono Trigger or Radical Dreamers : give Thieves of Fate a chance, you won’t regret it. And it’s free !

Where to find it :
Official site
Torrent or streaming on OC ReMix

Tracklist :

01 Days of Summer V2 (Days of Summer) 4:46
02 Thieves of Fate (Days of Summer) 6:49
03 Fury and Tears (Gate) 4:50
04 starbright (Under the Moonlight) 2:55
05 Loneliness (Strange Presentiment) 5:37
06 Sexy Boy (Strange Presentiment) 4:00
07 Thrash’s Snakebone Pit (Snakebone Mansion) 4:29
08 Scar Sealing Girl (The Girl Who Stole the Star) 6:20
09 Running After You (Distant Promise) 5:00
10 Requeim for Another World (Requiem) 4:46
11 Fuego Frío (Frozen Flame) 2:51
12 Hallucinogenic (Facing) 3:54
13 Confronto Finale (Final Confrontation) 5:56
14 Summer’s Dream (Epilogue) 7:42
15 Le Trésor Interdit (Ending ~ Le Trésor Interdit) 3:57

B1 Bipolar Popsicle WIP (Frozen Flame) (Bonus Track) 1:46
B2 Cold as Hell WIP (Frozen Flame) (Bonus Track) 5:08

Total time : 80 minutes

888 Challenge : Book #2 (Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam)

Hmmm… Some might say I’m reading a bit too much considering I have my first exam tomorrow, but the book was really short. And I’m glad that it was. It’s the first book by Amélie Nothomb that I read, and I probably won’t be opening another for a while.

I may sound a little harsh with my previous statement, but, well, I just don’t like the character of Amélie. Some time ago, I saw the film based on her novel “Stupeur et tremblements”, and I couldn’t help but to think that the way she was portrayed in the movie made her look as if she was… dumb. Or something along the same line.

Even so, when one of my aunts told me to read her latest book, which is about her life in Japan before the events of the movie, I tought that it could be interesting. And indeed, I had many reasons to want to read this novel : she is fascinated by Japan and its culture, and so am I. She also is from Belgium, another thing we have in common.

But no. Definitely, I don’t like the kind of person she is. The last part of the book was particularely responsible for this judgement…

Anyway, there were some things that still made the book enjoyable, mainly the way it offers an example of what the life can be in Japan for a foreigner. What I regret is that these aspects were often put in the background, hidden by the character of Amélie (even if it’s normal, as the book is an autobiography). Also, she needs to stop using “extase”, “exulter” and “s’exclamer” once each page. It gets tiring after a while ^^

Well, now to another book, 62 to go !

888 Challenge Status :

Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
#2 Ni d’Eve ni d’Adam (Amélie Nothomb)

888 Challenge : Book #1 (Ender’s Game)

Some weeks ago, Pascale introduced me to something she had herself found on another blog, the “Triple Eight Reading Challenge”. The goal is to read 8 books, from 8 categories (which you can choose as you please) in 2008. Quite simple, isn’t it ? And, as we both like reading, we found that it’s a good way to finally get to read this pile of books that are always meant to be “read soon”, but aren’t because we don’t take the time to read them.

But I just can’t make a complete list, yet even choose the 8 categories I’ll pick from. So, I decided I would build the list and the categories as I go. And the first category I’ll inaugurate will be…

(You can add some drumrolls here if you like. That’ll make the announcement a little bit more… dramatic.)

“Books suggested by friends”

… So, finally, drumrolls were perhaps too much, oh well…

And I already read the first book from this daunting list of 64 I’m supposed to read. It was Orson Scott Card’s “Enders’s Game”, a sci-fi novel first published in 1985. I read it mainly because two of my friends read it and recommended it to me independently. And one of them gave me such a review of the book that I was already eager to read it, after what the other one spoke of it, and leant it to me. So that was a coincidence, but in a good way.

And I think the last time I read a whole book in a little more than one night was when I read “Le successeur de pierre” by Jean-Michel Truong (which is my favorite book of all times, by the way). I opened the book at 1 am, and wasn’t able to put it down until 6:30 am, when my eyes were closing themselves whether I liked it or not. And this morning, the first thing I did was pick up the book and go through the last 70 pages…

I’m not saying it was as good as “Le successeur de pierre” (but then, for me nothing can be), but it was one of the most enjoyable book I read in awhile. And I just finished to read The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, so you can’t say it’s because I’ve been reading boring stuff before. I was just really eager to follow Ender, this little boy sent to a military academy and always put to test, struggling to find some peace as he is trained to become mankind’s savior.

Because the main protagonist of the story is a kid. A really gifted child who has been selected to become a commander of an interstellar spaceship, or even the commander of the whole fleet, as he soon discover. I won’t say much more about the story, because I wouldn’t want to spoil those who’d want to read it. The bottom line is : it’s a quick read, but the story is engaging and the characters (especially Ender, of course) were great.

And I learned that a movie was being made after the book. That could be really great, I think the story would make a great movie scenario… But wait and see, they could also screw it up. Badly. I’m also glad that Ender’s Game is the first in a serie of 4 books. I’ll definitely join Ender and the others again some time, probably soon !

888 Challenge Status :

Category 1: “Books suggested by friends”
#1 Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

The winds of change…

What an grandiloquent title for a not-so-important post. In fact, as you may have guessed it by reading these first few words, I’m seriously thinking about writing at least a good proportion of my posts in english. That may sound like an odd decision, but it’s just that it will enable me to put what I write here on my mixi page (more about mixi in a post to come, it’s amazing how many entries I have started to write, but are yet to be completed ^^).

Also, I’ll probably start to look for another host soon. Too often, I’m unable to connect to this blog because of a server error, or a MySql problem…

That’s it for today, I’ll try to get something more fancy posted in a few days, there have been enough “ranting” posts as it is.

(And a final note to self : I should translate the categories…)

…

Ca fait deux posts qui disparaissent… J’aimerais comprendre, mais bon, tant pis…

Sinon, ce billet est là pour prévenir que je ne laisse pas ce blog à l’abandon, mais que simplement, ces dernières semaines sont des semaines de remise de projets. Et que donc mon temps libre, et même de sommeil, a tendance à fondre comme neige au soleil.

Et du coup, je n’ai pas le temps d’écrire. Mais par contre, ces fameux projets vont me donner matière à écrire quelques billets… So, stay tuned !

“Bande de cons!”

J’ai reçu aujourd’hui un e-mail, vous savez ceux dont le sujet commence par “Fw: Fw: Re: Fw:”. En général, ça n’annonce rien de bien. Ca c’est vérifié : ledit mail ne valait rien de bien. Pour ceux qui n’ont pas encore eû la… euh… chance de le lire, il s’agit d’un texte tiré de l’émission “La semaine infernale” du 8 novembre (diffusée sur la radio de la RTBF). Et l’un des intervenants de l’émission, monsieur Thomas Gunzig, y a lu un texte qui porte le même titre que ce billet. Dans un soucis de clarté, et pour que le reste de ma prose reste intelligible, voici le fameux texte :

Bande de cons !
pas vous, cher public !
Les autres, les formateurs, informateurs, explorateurs, chef de groupe, président de partis flamands, présidents de partis francophones, second couteau, troisième couteau, de gauche, de droite, les cathos, les écolos,, les libéraux…
Bande de cons de Flandre
Bande de cons de Bruxelles
Bande de cons de Wallonie.
D’abord à tous ceux qui croient avoir gagné les élections d’il y a 5 mois.
A tous ceux qui avaient un grand sourire
A tous ceux qui avaient les bras en l’air.
Le temps est venu de vous avouer quelque chose :
Les gens n’ont pas voté pour vous parce qu’ils vous aimaient.
Les gens ont voté pour vous parce qu’ils étaient obligés.
A la veille du onze juin : dans les rues, les maisons, les bureaux, les gens hochaient la tête et se demandaient vraiment qui ils allaient pouvoir choisir parmi ce catalogue de nuls, de klets, de nouilles, d’opportunistes agressifs, de carriéristes sans charisme, de mal fringués, de gros type à l’élocution problématique, de petit nerveux en pleine tendinite de l’égo, de semi-hystériques, de semi-mafieux, de cyniques, de je-m’en-foutistes, de ratés de tout le reste, de fils à papa, d’experts comptables en décrochage professionel, d’entrepreneurs en faillite frauduleuse, de sinistres, de pas lavés, de faux gentil, de vrais méchants…

More

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Conférence Altaïr : la cryptographie quantique

Ce matin, je me suis rendu dans la belle ville de Bruxelles, et plus précisemment sur le campus de l’ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles, pour ceux qui ne savent pas). En effet, s’y tenait une conférence de deux heures qui tombe drôlement à point, vu qu’elle a pour sujet le domaine sur lequel je suis occupé à travailler pour mon mémoire de fin d’étude.

Et bizarrement, si je considère que j’ai bien fait d’y assister, ce qui me fait dire cela n’est pas le contenu de la conférence proprement dit, mais bien les 5 minutes qui l’ont directement suivie.

Parce qu’il y a un problème avec ce genre de sujet : quand deux heures y sont consacrées, c’est souvent pour une introduction. Or, si vous êtes déjà familier avec le domaine, et bien vous savez déjà la plupart de ce que l’orateur va vous raconter…

Mais bon, je ne me plains pas, cette petite conférence m’aura permis d’aller discuter quelques instants avec Nicolas Cerf, qui était ledit orateur, et qui m’a expliqué que si j’envisageais de me lancer dans une thèse l’an prochain, je pouvais toujours le contacter pour voir s’il n’était pas possible d’arranger quelque chose.

Et ça, ça vaut bien deux heures de mon temps ! Parce que malheureusement, à l’UCL, la cryptographie quantique et la théorie de l’information quantique ne sont pas vraiment des domaines de recherche très développés, à mon grand dam. Et puis c’est mon premier rapprochement “concret” avec mon souhait de poursuivre une thèse après la fin de mes études…