A story without words

Well, sort of. The always-fascinating TED has a blog which features a great fairytale without traditional text. This makes me :)

Artist on LSD

Three posts in one day? Unheard of!
Nonetheless, voilà!

Beards and mo's

Since I mentioned Movember recently, head on over to BuzzFeed for a cute diagram of the options available.

"Great moments in post-modernism"

From an interesting blog, "Buildings and Food", comes an equally-interesting analysis of post-modernist culture via a rap video.
Key point: More money = more problems.
Thoughts?

No, I'm not missing...

...just lazy.

But things have been happening!

• I got my French work permit. Hoorah! It took a long time between agreeing to work for the MBA Center and finally reaching an agreement with my actual employer, a 'portage' company which acts as an intermediary between me and the MBA Center to satisfy the requirements of my visa (namely that I can't work as an independent and must be employed by someone). The upside is that everything is legal and the owner of the portage company is lovely; The downside is that 50% of my pay packet is taken away. Sob. Still, at least I'm now able to work legally and can finally get paid for the work I've already done (which is significant). Oddly enough, the hours-of-waiting-in-line-only-to-be-turned-away-due-to-insufficient-documentation that I was expecting (y'know, the stereotypical French Bureacracy) never eventuated. Yet again I met with someone lovely who was patient with my lack of language skill and who, in the end, didn't need half of what I'd prepared. What I have now is a simple sheet of paper that was almost painless to acquire. Phew!

• I've booked my flight back to Sydney for my birthday and Christmas. I've also booked another return flight from Sydney to Paris, assuming that I'll need to apply for another visa if I want to return (which, at this stage, I do). I'll be staying in Oz until the 9th of January - come say hi!

• B and I have also been talking about what's going to happen when my visa runs out and, as the previous bullet-point suggests, I'm almost decided that I'll be coming back to Paris for a while. Things with B are going well, and while I miss Australia and still have every intention of returning at least semi-permanently, I don't mind this town and am happy to see life play out here a while longer. Of course, that could all change tomorrow but this is the status quo.

Aside from all that, life is kicking along its merry way. We're visiting Italy the weekend after next for four days. We're flying into Pisa and pottering around Tuscany (y'know, as you do. Ahem), hopefully visiting some great vineyards and seeing some of the things my dad saw and loved when he was in Italy all those years ago. 1997, was it, dad? Wow, that's dating... Rest assured, my Flickr account will be significantly heftier on our return. Speaking of which, the latest photos of the zoo at the Jardin des Plantes are up here!

Movember

For those who don't know, Movember is "an annual charity event held during November" that "aims to change these attitudes...that they have to be tough - "a real man" - and not see a doctor about an illness or go for regular medical checks...and make men's health fun by putting the Mo back on the face of fashion, and in the process raise some serious funds for key men's health issues."
I did it last year:




I know - a bit pathetic when you see the other blokes' efforts!





Anyway, in 2007 the organisation raised AUS$16.2 million! That's incredible, but really only a small start when you consider prostate cancer is now the most diagnosed cancer in Australia (ahead of skin cancer...in Australia...That's just crazy). Check out how the organisation used the funds here.
Movember is coming up again so for all those reading this blog please consider either Mo'ing up or supporting someone else as a MoBro or MoSista in their quest.

Autumn

It's truly here. Leaves are turning colour, scarves are making a reappearance, menu choices are decidely different (Cassoulet replacing Tomate Farcie, for example) and people have that look, when crossing bridges, like they're about to visit Toto and Dorothy in some far away land. It's actually quite a nice time - it's not too cold and the sun is still shining for most of the day (about 8am to 7pm). Also, papers in the Northern Hemisphere are churning out pieces like this (see photo 16 for an approximation of what Paris looks like in any of its numerous parks). All in all, this town is a lovely place to be.
Oh, and did I mention I finally got a contract today? :o)

Obama vs McCain

I've resisted weighing into a debate I know too little about whenever the opportunity has arisen. I've done a fair bit of blog-reading/vlog-listening, though, and this was one of many recent highlights. That's Donna Brazile, manager of Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential run and frequent commentator on CNN.

Tilt-shift

Tilt-shift + post production = Amazing photography that makes real objects look like miniature models. Here's a video.
The best part? This was done by an Australian, not far from where KT and I used to paddle. See his other TS videos here.

Photography

As an avid (some might say obssessive) amateur photographer, this sort of stuff is breathtaking and inspiring. Thanks, Yann Arthus Bertrand!

gooseGrade

You may notice a new thingy on the RHS of the page: the gooseGrade icon. It's a new widget that "allows you to suggest spelling, grammar, factual, and other corrections to authors." Basically, if you spot a mistake in any of the posts click on the icon and make your corrections. It's particularly for those who love mistake-free reading (read: anal-retentives) - people like moi...Chicken, mum & dad, KT, etc! (Just kidding, folks.)
More here.

What the...?!

Huh? No Sharon?
Yet another example of me leaving the country (for almost 6 months! Phew!) and everything going south. It's a good thing I'm coming back for Christmas or you'd all be running from the latest catastrophe...most probably some kind of godzilla-like thing.

Totally Famous

We saw Gotye at Nouveau Casino on Monday night. I'm now, like, totally famous.
Yeah, okay, so I'm in the background...but it's a start!
Btw, this is such a good photo of the stereotypical French model. It's just perfect. The I-could-care-less stare, the styled-beyond-all-understanding ensemble - perfect.