09 May Working at Night (Day 111)

In the morning, I went to get Rozenn to do the experiment for me. She was a colleague working in Ravi’s team and was very cheerful. Despite how much I like her personality, I wanted to strangle her after the experiment, because I felt sure I need to have another experiment next week. Her results just pull up the average figure which was what I didn’t want. After that, I went for early lunch because I have a participant coming at 1pm. While queuing up, I saw Ana coming up from behind with a bald guy. So this is the time she comes for lunch. I always go for lunch with the guys at 1230pm. She looked very happy to see me but that bald guy had no smile at all on his face. Anyway, I still intro myself (as Alex) to him and he is Martin. Still no smile when I shook his hand. Rather unfriendly I feel. I guess he could be the “guy” friend she has been talking about. I sat alone and didn’t join the 2 of them because I don’t know if I would be welcomed (by that Martin). But I hope Ana doesn’t see me as a pathetic guy who eats alone all by himself for lunch. Only for today. And of course right in the beginning when I wasn’t close with the colleagues yet.

After lunch on the way back, I met Mr. Giant and Nico and told them why I ate without them. Nico looked very jovial and energised. Must have a great time yesterday with Marie. At 1300h, Eric, my participant came right on time. I asked if he had a hard time getting here and finding my office since he was not from IRISA. He couldn’t understand my question. I was a bit surprised and repeated again slowly and clearly this time. Still he couldn’t understand. Jialat. How is he going to do my exp later? In the end after a few more attempts he finally got the meaning. He said his English is … and then pointed his thumb downward. I said that’s ok. But it isn’t because I didn’t want him to jeopardize my experiment just because we have comm. problems. After some drawings and gestures from me, he finally had a rough idea of the objective. But I couldn’t afford just rough ideas. Every participant needs to be 100% sure of what he is going to do. In the end I asked Laurent to translate for me. I did that as the last resort because I didn’t want my participant to feel embarrassed. Furthermore, he was a friend of Julien and when Julien sent out the email for me, he specified that the exp will be conducted in English.

After the test, Eric had to answer the questionnaire and again I asked Laurent to help just to be sure. But this Laurent, sigh, how should I say. He really speaks English quite well when the 2 of us are alone. But in front of others, he has a little bit of inferior complexity and speaks broken English. Luckily I’ve known him for awhile and hence able to understand what he was translating. I can’t remember if Eric’s results were ideal or not but he sure was a very good participant. Despite being handicapped by the language, he tried very hard to explain to me his perceptions of the VR thing I was doing. Some other participants who speak good English didn’t give as much feedback as he did. He even tried to draw in order to explain to me. Before leaving, he said I should send him an email to clear any doubts. Professional participant. Thanks man.

Shortly afterward, I had another “experienced” participant and with him done, I had completed all 10 tests using experienced participants. Tonight I will have one more participant for the naïve tests and that’s all for the entire experiment; for now at least. I remember this participant who is called Federic. Because he speaks good English and is very interactive. I prefer this kind of participants who interact and feedback to me because the experiment I am doing is on human’s perception hence it is subjective. Also, I don’t like to just sit and watch them do the exp, and after that write a few words for the questionnaire and leave. The exp itself is already very boring. Federic said this exp is much harder than the previous one and said I was torturing him. But in the end, he said if there is going to be another one, I can always call him. Really is zi zuo jian. There will be one but I can’t use you anymore buddy. While he was doing, my mind was already racing through the sources from which I can get 10 naïve people for the exp. For now, I can only think of 4 potential participants.

After Federic, I had nothing to do and looked for info on the Loire Valley trip. I came to the tourism website of Tours and the office there organizes excursions to the castles. I thought of signing up one of the package which covers most of the castles I had in mind. The cost is about 50 euros per person. I find it worthwhile because it saves transportation time and is more convenient. Frankly speaking, I have not much idea on how to go to those castles. I emailed the office to ask them what does the excursion include specifically. I only know what it excludes: entrance fee to castles and lunch. Then I found something on taking hot air balloon and viewing the Valley from the air. But it costs a bomb to take the hot air balloon, about 200 euros. But taking the plane is much cheaper. 35 euros per person but only for 30 min. I think I would call up the office tomorrow to find out more details. But I would do that in the afternoon because tomorrow morning I would go down to the train station to buy my tickets for this Saturday. This is a big trip and hence I want to be fully prepared. Can’t afford to buy on the spot on Saturday and find myself without a ticket due to some unforeseen circumstances or whatsoever. Hui would be stuck there alone as he already got his tickets.

I went to see Mathilde earlier in the morning and said I need the key for one more day as I have to work tonight. She was wearing sleeveless and wohoo… sexy. She smiled and said ok. In the afternoon, she came and said she had made a key for me to my office. I returned her the key I borrowed initially and signed out for this new one. She really loves me; took the trouble to make a key for me. Nah… dreaming again. The key I was holding on was hers and she didn’t want to get into trouble should I lose it. Now with this new key to myself, the room is my responsibility now. I met Julien at the corridor and thanked him for all the INSA students he got for me. He said now that I have the key, I am able to work at night. Siao, I hope I don’t have to do that often. Anyway, the office is still a free access room and is not mine alone. Not as if I can put my personal stuffs inside and lock up the room. The key only grants me access into the room at night. I don’t think I would have much problem finding 10 more people for the coming exp but I am just sick, super sick of exp by now.

I went back to INSA early to have my dinner as I had to meet Romain, an INSA student for the exp at 8pm. The kitchen was back to its original less messy state. I always wonder who clears the trash bin in the kitchen and thought maybe the residents have some sort of roster and I am not doing my job because I never clear the bin. This morning, I saw the fat lady dragging a large trashbag of rubbish out from the kitchen. So it is her job. I hope she didn’t have to clear the mess of the kitchen created by my neighbours over the long weekend.

I met my last participant at the bus stop at 1945h sharp. The problem of waiting for strangers at bus stop is you don’t know who you are waiting for. You just have to try and figure out who looks like he or she is waiting for someone. Anyway, I had no problem finding him and we went to the lab. On the way I intro myself, my purpose here and why I need students from INSA. This guy or boy I would say because he is only 17 years old had more pimples on his face than me. Yeah! Generally people here have good complexion for both guys and girls because of the weather. Although it is cold here, humidity level is also quite high due to the abundant amount of rain. Anyway, he completed the experiment quite fast. Feeling sick of the lab at 9pm, I didn’t want to analyse the results there and decide to bring work back to my room. It is quite sure that I am going to have another experiment now that I had finished all the tests. Unless Anatole’s brilliant brain has some way out of this. Hope he takes pity on me and would say this tomorrow, “great job chee hian! You have completed everything much earlier than I thought! We can start the paper writing right now. No more exp for you!” No more exp please…