my kind of short animated film 
(enjoy it while the link still works)
(thanks Ray)
Archive for November, 2009
E.T.A.
November 16th, 2009Visiting with my friends in the bookcase
November 14th, 2009
A few days ago I sorted my books alphabetically, from Adams to Zusak. As said before, I love to read, so it’s a pleasure to see all those old friends again, to re-discover a few unexpected ones (Plato’s Republic ?) and to throw away some utter rubbish.
But as I was stacking those hundreds of books in the corridor, I had to wonder: has reading all those books made me a better, or a more intelligent person ? The consensus is that reading a lot is a good thing. They say ‘well-read’, and the term ‘book addict’ is never associated with classified substances.
Most of the books I have at home are fiction. Fiction allows you to slip into someone else’s skin, living or imagining situations you’ll never find yourself in – how a man loves, what a psychopath thinks like, living in France in the 16th century, making your way in a distant future.
Arguably, great literature is the most elevating, because characters are very life-like, avoiding stereotypes to go straight to the mixed up experience of being human. Also, literature often makes you think, it addresses the deeper questions without being pedantic about it.
There is a percentage of great literature in my book collection, but it’s not the majority. I’ll admit that I often read for entertainment, or to avoid the present moment if it’s uncomfortable or boring. Lots of sci-fi, fantasy, some humoristic chicklit. I have standards for writing style, but I won’t vouch for distinguished content.
So does reading all these pages make me better ? I don’t know. Better for what ? Does it matter ? I’ll continue reading, just in case.
Note: I gave up on nanowrimo. There’s no way for me to be writing 1667 words/day right now – maybe next year …
Beer Festival
November 8th, 2009
Beer festival in Hasselt yesterday – it’s getting to be a tradition, I have a good friend in Alken, and every year we go and have an extended sampling sessions. Beer festivals are not scarce in Belgium, but the Hasselt beer festival is one of the better ones, with about 140 beers on the list, carefully selected by an association of beer lovers.
I even took notes ! The order below is from the booklet, not the order we tasted it in.
For documentation purposes, these are the beers I sampled in mine and in my friend’s glasses:
- huardis (on tap) – cloudy blond : nice, but not extraordinary white beer, with almost no aftertaste.
- De Graal Quest (on tap) – blond: quite complete beer, sweet with a bitter aftertaste.
- Chouffe Houblon (on tap) – blond: slightly bitter, but relatively light taste, pleasant
- Amburon (on tap) – blond: a pils-like, pleasant but not memorable beer.
- Vicaris Generaal (on tap) – brown: burnt, scotch-like beer – a bit too strongly so to be pleasant in more than little quantities.
- Jambe-de-Bois tripel (on tap) – amber: quite bitter and full taste, with sweetish aftertones, nice if you like bitter beers.
- Den Drupneuze – dark blond: a complete beer, sweet first taste, full and yeasty in mouth with slightly bitter aftertaste
- Hanssens Oude Geuze – geuze: geuze, and this one is a good one, with a complex taste with sour overtones. You love it or you hate it.
- Kriek Mariage Parfait – red kriek: very, very nice kriek, not sweet at all and with a natural cherry flavour combined with the typical sour taste.
- Oudegodje – cloudy blond: quite light of taste for a triple
- Schinus Blond – blond (duh): supposed to be brewed with red pepper, but we couldn’t detect it.
- Corsendonk Rousse – copper: brewed for the italian market, and much too sweet.
- Tiense Kweiker Amber – dark amber: burnt, sweetish, pleasant
- Omer – blond: quite light with a bitter, aromatic taste.
- Den Bir – dark blond: sweetish with slightly bitter aftertaste
- Schuppenboer tripel – cloudy blond: strong overtastes of coriander over the tripel taste (reminding of Hoegaarde, although not a white)
- Schuppenboer tripel 2009 – blond: sweet, full in the mouth tripel.
- Bitter Truth – blond: quite sharply bitter, full in the mouth. I like.
Needless to say I didn’t drink a glass of each, or I’d have been crawling in the gutter. At such a tasting, the more friends, the better, to exchange glasses, give a show of tasting and swap opinions.
Unsurprisingly: at the end, my notes get a bit short, like ‘very good’, and the writing is not up to usual standards.
China in your hand
November 5th, 2009
Tonight I went to see the Europalia exhibition ‘Son of Heaven‘ at Bozar. It’s a short history of all the dynasties, illustrated by objects from the personal collections of all these emperors and dynasties, starting with Qin.
Very impressive. A civilisation which already had intricate stonework 1300BC, and fine jewellery 200BC. Beautiful potteries, colourful embroidered silks.
What stayed with me, was this guy: Ferdinand Verbiest. This flemish jesuit, after some wandering, ended up being a personal advisor of the emperor. So not only was he an accomplished mathematician and philosopher, he also mastered mandarin to the point of being able to sell a new calendar to the emperor (and to write a couple of books on the subject). The wikipedia entry says he invented the first steam car.
An extraordinary man, no doubt, a geek avant la lettre and a genius. Surprising how even back then, when most people never moved too far from their place of birth (barring emigration to America, of course), some people travelled to the other side of the world, and managed to have extraordinary, eventful lives.
NaNoWriMo
November 1st, 2009
Having a go at NaNoWriMo. what is it ? In short: writing a novel in 30 days (november). 50000 words minimum, which means about 175 pages. 1667 words/day.
The idea is not to write a good novel, nor even a readable novel – just to do it, no revisions, no editing, just writing until you get there. As they phrase it in the pitch: “to transform you from an aspiring author into a perspiring author”.
I like the concept – the fact of being part of the 100000 or so people who do it, and to update your daily word counter, is an incentive. I’m not really an aspiring author, but I’ve always fancied writing a book someday. This could give me an idea of the word involved, or whether I have it in me at all.
On the downside, I do have enough comitments to make it difficult – a full-time job, FOSDEM, some open source ideas, etc. We’ll see. Nothing rides on it, except a little bit of pride.
