02 March - Good People (Day 43)

No wonder last night I felt so cold at around 4am. This morning when I left the building, the entire surrounding was covered in white. It had been snowing occasionally now but this time it was for real. Last time it was green grass with patches of white on it. Now, I couldn’t see a tiny area of green. Everything is just white. I went back to get my camera and took pictures of the surrounding. When I began to walk to IRISA, I almost slipped and fell because my running shoes were no good to walk on the slippery road. So I had to go back again and changed to my boots. It was still quite slippery to walk on the pavement and I saw people walking on the grass patch which was covered with snow instead. So I copied their idea and left many footprints on the ground. But it wasn’t really cold then, perhaps about 2 degrees.

At the office, I was doing a last minute check with the results before showing to Anatole and found out that there was a mistake. My program actually had a bug and while performing the experiment 2 yesterday, the results were erroneous. So I quickly tried to remedy the problem before Anatole arrived. Just then, he stepped in and said he got a meeting and would probably meet me just before lunch. Good, that should buy me some time. At around 11am, I solved the problem and did one last check before moving on to do some personal stuffs. I received an email from Jean-Marie that there will be 11 people playing tomorrow and we need to cut it to 10. However, since he mass mailed everyone (the soccer people), he wrote it in French and I wasn’t sure if I understood the content correctly. So I replied to him saying that I was willing to withdraw since the time was a bit too late (915pm play until 1015pm. Reach home would be 1115pm). At noon Anatole came in and we discussed a bit on the work. He said that we need to get people who are totally unaware of the experimental technique so as to get the most accurate and candid results. Those people that I asked to do the tests previously were experts. He said I should catch some of the students attached to IRISA. Just then, a few of them walked past and Anatole stopped them. Then he asked 2 of them to come and find me at 3pm for the experiment. Like I was some kind of big shot researcher, haha.

For lunch, I had to go alone again because my sup had to meet some other people. I sometimes wonder if the project I am doing is for real or not. Or is it just something to keep the IA students here occupied. But when we were discussing the experiment, Anatole would always be very serious and strict with the parameters, the criteria, etc. It doesn’t seem like a “play play” kind of thing. Anyway, I shall just put in my best effort, real or fake. At lunch, I was sitting with a black lady and her 5 or 6 yr old son. She was constantly ordering him to finish his food and she would go and top up more dessert for him. (Free flow dessert, some kind of slimy thing which I never dare to try) I took the wrong yogurt and it was the plain, tasteless type. Yucks! After lunch I read the papers and my friends’ blogs. I saw my stone megaliths picture in Carol’s blog and she actually did some research on that and attached the links there. And she too likes ancient civilizations, the 7 wonders of the world, and stuffs like that. Finally I found someone with the same interest as me, moreover it’s a girl. But she is a very smart girl anyway. Oops, “moreover a girl” sounds very MCP. And “very smart” seems to imply that those who have no interest in these things are stupid. Haha, my mouth always gets me into trouble. I read her friends’ blogs too as she had their links in her blog. And one of them was writing in Chinese! Wow!!! Impressive. But too bad my browser Mozilla is not good enough to read some of the Chinese characters. It has almost become a rare talent to write in Chinese for Singaporean.

Then I heard some news from Loi that he and Fan are coming to Europe for their grad tour in May before they return to the Army in June. I told them to put France as the last stop because I would be freer at the end of May. In any case, I do hope that when they visit France, they could come to my region. But seldom would people come to Bretagne if they are touring Europe. They would come here if they are just touring France because there is Mont St Michel, a tourist attraction that is the 3rd most visited place in France. And I heard from Carol that another classmate of ours Maggie is coming to France soon. Really hope to see a fellow Singaporean soon. Then Jean-Marie came and said that I can play soccer tomorrow because another Jean-Marie and Nicolas are dropping out. So that left 9 people. Then I went to see Vincent to ask him give me a lift there tomorrow. He gave me his address and asked me to meet him at his place at 830pm. He also gave me the street name for Leader Price.

At 3pm, the first student came to do my experiment. He looked very much like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai with his long hair and beard. But this student is much taller and slender. I shook his hand and felt like shaking the hand of a lady. My hand is already very lady-like because of my thin fingers and fleshless palm. Although his hand is larger, he doesn’t have a firm handshake. He shook my hand in a very lady-like style, with his fingers close together. Then when he began to speak, his tone totally mismatched his manly look. I mean, his voice is still that of a man but he speaks very gently. I shall call him GC here so as not to reveal his identity. I then explained to him the purpose and procedures of the experiment, this time in the correct way. Previously I had did the briefing wrongly and Anatole corrected me today. He said that I should not give too much information about the experiment to the participant and should print out a brief instruction for them to read. Reading from a document would be more neutral and reduce interaction between the conductor and the participant. In this way, it would ensure that the experiment results would not be influenced too much by external factors. After 30 min or so, he completed the experiment and I asked him to fill up the questionnaire. That was when I realized he is only 21 yrs old. I thanked him and shook his hand again, (it is the norm here to shake hand with people when you first enter their room and when you leave their room.) just to confirm if I would get another gentle handshake. And yes I did have another one.

The 2nd student came and this one looked a lot more boyish and he was wearing some sort of soccer jersey. Normally people would wear sweater in the office. Just then Mathilde walked past and wow, she is still ever so beautiful and I really wanted to take a picture of her since I brought along my Pentax today. (this part a bit extra, just want to mention something about her because I haven’t done so for a long time in my journal) The student is called Julien and he too is 21 yrs old. This time he took only 20 min or so to complete, much faster than the previous guy. But I can tell that he wasn’t as careful (or maybe not as serious?) and true enough, when I was analyzing the results later, he had more mistakes. But the purpose of the experiment is to make an answer as quickly as possible so as to get the first time perception of the people on the graphics displayed. Anyway, I thanked him for his time and chatted a bit with him. I found out that they were students of INSA in their final year and had to do an attachment here at IRISA. Coincidentally, they were staying in my block, 3 levels above me! Then I asked him about internet access in the room and he said I should really go back to the multimedia centre and try again. He said normally they don’t give access to foreigners because these people stay for a few weeks and would be gone. So they wanted to save the trouble. But since I am staying until June, he said I should try to explain to them and they would most probably understand. I hope so too, provided they understand my explanation but I would try again tomorrow afternoon. He then said that he could give me his password and login for the free access usage in the multimedia centre should I be unsuccessful again. He said he doesn’t need the free access since he already had the connection in his room.

This guy is really helpful to give me his account and he just known me for 30 min. I should be ashamed to doubt the sincerity of the people here yesterday. Later Vincent came in and said that the soccer was cancelled because some problem with booking the court. But he said that the guys are going to his house to play Xbox (FIFA soccer actually) and he said now that I got his address, I could just come. I told him maybe not because I really not that interested. As for next week’s game, I told him 10pm is quite late for me. He said I don’t have to worry about going back. They have some cars and anyone can send me back if I want. I was really grateful and if that is the case I would definitely play next week. These guys here are offering help generously and yet I wasn’t being the least appreciative by being suspicious. I was still in the office analyzing the results at 630pm when Anatole came in and said he got to rush and would discuss the results with me first thing tomorrow morning at 930am (another early day…). But he did asked generally how the results were and I asked him back whether he likes spicy food or oily food. Because we had a bet on the results and after a preliminary analysis, I felt that I am losing the bet and have to treat him a Chinese meal. But it remains to see who has the last laugh because the experiment has to be passed through 20 subjects, and these are just 2 of them. He said for the next 2 days before he leaves for his vacation, we have to ensure that the experiments are bugless and functioning perfectly. He would then help me compose an email to be sent to the entire IRISA asking people to make appointment with me for the experiment. In all, I need 40 participants and I guessed I could only do 3 to 4 per day because after that I still need to analyse the results. So that would take about 2 to 3 weeks. And before Anatole ran off to somewhere else, he passed me his Green Guide of Bretagne.

I was still analyzing the results near 730pm because I had to finish them by today as they are needed first thing in the morning tomorrow. In between the analysis, I took a glance at new pics sent by Hua about his partying in Italy. I wasn’t really very envious of him now because my life here cannot be compared to his in Italy. I just felt that there is a great contrast as he is going to parties now and then while I am working even at 730pm. The colleagues here don’t “cheong” because I read their mails when the soccer game was cancelled. They gave suggestions like: xbox, basketball, billard, watch DVD. Finally I finished all the result analysis but was too tired to double check them. Hope Anatole would be late tomorrow and I could do some last minute checking. I was thinking while he is away in March, maybe I should take some day offs myself one of the weeks. It is better to visit some places in the weekdays rather than the weekends because the timings are better and you don’t normally need to make reservations. But that would depend on the next 2 days when normally I would get my heaviest load of arrows.