I wanted to wake up late this morning but couldn’t because I had an experiment in the morning. The participant was Martin, my love rival. He was Ana’s colleague and seemed quite close to her. Sad to say, at age of 27, he was balding. wahahaha. Joking of course. I was grateful that he came to help. I am really in need of participants. But still, it was a fact that he was balding. Hahaha. After the experiment, I went to return DVD and didn’t borrow anymore. First, I wouldn’t have time given my following weekends would be away. Second, I had new supplies from hui. Third, I had lots of work to do. My final report was only half done and the deadline is next Wed. Presentation would be next Thurs. Experiment deadline this Fri. And the paper. I also returned Mr. Giant his anime.
Jean-Marie sent an email to all those who owed him money for the soccer game. I was surprised that my name was in the list. I remember quite clearly that I paid up for every game because I kept a record of my weekly expenditure here. I asked if he knows which date was it. He said he can’t but he always keeps a record of who paid and who didn’t. Not wanting to make a fuss over 4 euros, I paid up although I am very sure he made a mistake. Probably there was a game whereby I didn’t turn up but he thought I was there. Or I paid together with someone else and he recorded wrongly. But that’s ok. I treat it as a reward for his effort of organising this weekly game. I asked Nico if there are any more games or is the season over. He said probably it is over and joked that the transfer window is opened once again. I told him too bad I am going back to SG and wouldn’t be here for the next season. Anyway, I wouldn’t have time to play now.
During lunch, 2 Americans joined us. They were new in Siames and would be staying for just 2 months. Indeed, Americans are more open. Too open I feel. Although I kept complaining that the French are not receptive enough, I feel the 2 Americans were too talkative. The fat one is called Jaakko (pronounced as Yucko) who was from Finland originally but is a complete American now. We called him Jack and he is from Orlando. Another skinny one is called Mark who is from Florida. Yeah sunny weather just like SG. Throughout the lunch, I talked a bit with them but wasn’t really that interested. I find them over friendly. Nicolas and Sebastien were a bit awkward as they can’t speak English well. They were absolutely quiet during lunch. All that can be heard was from that 2 Americans. It used to be lots of French language and limited English. Now with these 2 guys, it was all English at the table. I felt sorry for my 2 French colleagues and chatted a bit with them about my trip to the Loire Valley. Although I still speak English with them, I think they felt more comfortable because I am able to speak slow English. The Americans were just firing away.
Laurent chatted a lot with the Americans although his English was limited. When Mark spitted some food out of his mouth and criticised about how awful the food was, Laurent tried to make a joke and said welcome to France. WTF! Does he realise what he just said? French cuisine is part of your culture bro. Sensing that he had said something wrong, he changed his statement and said welcome to French university. Even though I was supposed to be the one talking to the Americans, I found myself trying to pull away from them. At that point, I prefer the French to the Americans. I am really culturally confused. I like the French when they are quiet and when they really talk to you, they are sincere. I don’t like the Americans because they just keep babbling on and on and they speak faster than their brains can think. Mark was aware of the stares from our eyes when he criticised the food. Hence, he said immediately that ever since he came, all the food was very nice up till now. Good try bro.
After the lunch, I asked the 2 Americans if they can do the experiment for me. They said no problem. I really find it awkward interacting with them. I just know them for an hour and they were treating me like their buddy, their pal. The French were slower to get close and were a little like the Chinese. But of course I have not seen enough of the world to stereotype people. That was just my first impression. Jaakko came and I thanked him again. He said it was no problem because back in Orlando, he had done a stupid experiment like this with 2000 trials. His exact statement was, “this kind of stupid experiment”. Suddenly he realised his wrong choice of word “stupid” and said the procedures are always stupid and monotonous but there is always a meaningful objective behind the test. Actually I wasn’t offended at all. The experiment was indeed quite dumb. Passing the mouse over an area again and again. Just that the results are useful. Once again, Jaakko has proven that Americans speak faster than they think.
After that it was Mark’s turn. Coincidentally, Mark was a good friend of Jaroslav when Jaro was in the States. After the exp, I went to find Mr. Giant and asked him how I can capture a video of my exp on Linux machine. He said normally he would use Xvid something but that is not possible for me because it can’t capture the movement of the cursor. Alternatively, he said I can borrow a video cam from the lab and plug it into the Linux machine. But the configuration will be very troublesome. On Windows it would be no prob. Last resort would be filming by hand or using a tripod stand. I had another idea. Don’t do. So much trouble.
I wanted to work on my final report but to my horror, the entire MS doc was corrupted and had collapsed! I did a recovery but all my tables were gone. I spent 2 hrs redoing all the tables and by 530pm, I had finished till the point where I last stop. I was extremely tired and decided to go back and sleep. Back in my room, I slept only at 1am. Thanks to hui’s DVD of Guess3. I really missed Jacky Wu a lot. Even in hall, during exam period, I would still watch his guess3 or shi zhi lu kou. I had hell lots of laughter the whole night.
Jean-Marie sent an email to all those who owed him money for the soccer game. I was surprised that my name was in the list. I remember quite clearly that I paid up for every game because I kept a record of my weekly expenditure here. I asked if he knows which date was it. He said he can’t but he always keeps a record of who paid and who didn’t. Not wanting to make a fuss over 4 euros, I paid up although I am very sure he made a mistake. Probably there was a game whereby I didn’t turn up but he thought I was there. Or I paid together with someone else and he recorded wrongly. But that’s ok. I treat it as a reward for his effort of organising this weekly game. I asked Nico if there are any more games or is the season over. He said probably it is over and joked that the transfer window is opened once again. I told him too bad I am going back to SG and wouldn’t be here for the next season. Anyway, I wouldn’t have time to play now.
During lunch, 2 Americans joined us. They were new in Siames and would be staying for just 2 months. Indeed, Americans are more open. Too open I feel. Although I kept complaining that the French are not receptive enough, I feel the 2 Americans were too talkative. The fat one is called Jaakko (pronounced as Yucko) who was from Finland originally but is a complete American now. We called him Jack and he is from Orlando. Another skinny one is called Mark who is from Florida. Yeah sunny weather just like SG. Throughout the lunch, I talked a bit with them but wasn’t really that interested. I find them over friendly. Nicolas and Sebastien were a bit awkward as they can’t speak English well. They were absolutely quiet during lunch. All that can be heard was from that 2 Americans. It used to be lots of French language and limited English. Now with these 2 guys, it was all English at the table. I felt sorry for my 2 French colleagues and chatted a bit with them about my trip to the Loire Valley. Although I still speak English with them, I think they felt more comfortable because I am able to speak slow English. The Americans were just firing away.
Laurent chatted a lot with the Americans although his English was limited. When Mark spitted some food out of his mouth and criticised about how awful the food was, Laurent tried to make a joke and said welcome to France. WTF! Does he realise what he just said? French cuisine is part of your culture bro. Sensing that he had said something wrong, he changed his statement and said welcome to French university. Even though I was supposed to be the one talking to the Americans, I found myself trying to pull away from them. At that point, I prefer the French to the Americans. I am really culturally confused. I like the French when they are quiet and when they really talk to you, they are sincere. I don’t like the Americans because they just keep babbling on and on and they speak faster than their brains can think. Mark was aware of the stares from our eyes when he criticised the food. Hence, he said immediately that ever since he came, all the food was very nice up till now. Good try bro.
After the lunch, I asked the 2 Americans if they can do the experiment for me. They said no problem. I really find it awkward interacting with them. I just know them for an hour and they were treating me like their buddy, their pal. The French were slower to get close and were a little like the Chinese. But of course I have not seen enough of the world to stereotype people. That was just my first impression. Jaakko came and I thanked him again. He said it was no problem because back in Orlando, he had done a stupid experiment like this with 2000 trials. His exact statement was, “this kind of stupid experiment”. Suddenly he realised his wrong choice of word “stupid” and said the procedures are always stupid and monotonous but there is always a meaningful objective behind the test. Actually I wasn’t offended at all. The experiment was indeed quite dumb. Passing the mouse over an area again and again. Just that the results are useful. Once again, Jaakko has proven that Americans speak faster than they think.
After that it was Mark’s turn. Coincidentally, Mark was a good friend of Jaroslav when Jaro was in the States. After the exp, I went to find Mr. Giant and asked him how I can capture a video of my exp on Linux machine. He said normally he would use Xvid something but that is not possible for me because it can’t capture the movement of the cursor. Alternatively, he said I can borrow a video cam from the lab and plug it into the Linux machine. But the configuration will be very troublesome. On Windows it would be no prob. Last resort would be filming by hand or using a tripod stand. I had another idea. Don’t do. So much trouble.
I wanted to work on my final report but to my horror, the entire MS doc was corrupted and had collapsed! I did a recovery but all my tables were gone. I spent 2 hrs redoing all the tables and by 530pm, I had finished till the point where I last stop. I was extremely tired and decided to go back and sleep. Back in my room, I slept only at 1am. Thanks to hui’s DVD of Guess3. I really missed Jacky Wu a lot. Even in hall, during exam period, I would still watch his guess3 or shi zhi lu kou. I had hell lots of laughter the whole night.
No comments:
Post a Comment