A Saturday in the Bay area

For the first time of the year and between two rain showers, we enjoyed a walk on the Santa Cruz shoreline. Good to breath sea air ! So refreshing, it remembered me of Brittany.
Then, we had a wonderful time at a party game with some friends who really know how to play!
For the first time in my life, I played poker! People were very nice and explained me the rules. It is quite entertaining once you know how to play.

Félicitations à Marc et Béatrice...

pour le petit Nicolas né aujourd'hui après de longues heures de travail...
3,5 kg pour 51 cm, tout le monde va bien !

Cloverfield

The less you know before going to see this movie, the better it is !
Plus, if you avoid a heavy meal before and you are not the kind of person to have motion-sickness, I think you will enjoy the movie...
I am not kidding. The scenario and the way it is filmed is a first in the movie industry and it is quite..heu...successfull?
You will like it or you will hate it !
Personally, I did not fully enjoyed the movie because of 'motion-sickness'. After half an hour, I started to not feel well. Hopefully, the movie was only 1h24min...
I think they insisted too much on the "home-video" side. But the scenario idea was interesting.
Go and make yourself your opinion.
Also, the end leaves the door opened to a possible serie. Let's see...

Body Worlds 2 @The Tech Museum of San Jose

Since the time we heard about it, we were finally able to do this famous exposition : "Body World 2 & The Three Pound Gem".
This Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies was presented at the Tech Museum of San Jose from September 27, 2007 through January 26, 2008.

First, Clement joined us at the Sino restaurant on Santana Row for their delicious Dim Sum.
Then, we took the line (2 hours...) just to buy the tickets. It allowed us to enter the museum only 2 hours later. Waiting for our time, we did the IMAX Dome Theater with a movie about "Le Tour de France".

Gunther von Hagens is the inventor of the Plastination process. It allows to preserve individual tissues and organs that have been removed from the body of the deceased as well as the entire body itself. By removing water and fats from the tissue and replacing these with polymers, the Plastination process deprives putrefaction bacteria of what they need to survive. In reality, it is more complex than that but all the details are on his website.

This exposition Body World 2 & The Three Pound Gem was more dedicated to the brain.
Having a background in biology, I found it very interesting and amazing to see muscles, all the organs, foetus, bones... from so close. There were also those black lungs from smokers which definitively should disgust people from cigarette.

If you have the opportunity to see this exposition close to your place one day, go for it!

Northern California OAUG Training Day

Let's talk about work.
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) is a global organization that enhances the capabilities of real Oracle users in their day-to-day use.
The 2008 Training Day for Northern California OAUG was held today at the Santa Clara Convention Center with 48 exhibitors.
Approximately 700 attendees assisted to the many presentations offered, and I was one of them!
Lucky me: my company had a booth at this conference and so I was able to spend the day there and also attend the following presentations:
- presentation held by Oracle on Release 12 of Subledger Accounting and Release 12 of Payments Engine,
- how to utilize Oracle's Automated Lockbox feature in Oracle Receivables,
- FSG (Financial Statement Generator) tips and tricks for creation and maintenance.
Those presentations and the others are also available for download in their seminar archive.

It was nice for a day to not be at my desk debugging issues or testing new set-ups.

To complete this already fully day, we headed up for San Francisco with Yann, Marthe and Jean to participate in this Klub Europe event in a Cigar Bar. We were all a little disappointed I must say... It looked more appealing from outside. Never mind.

Raclette chez Marthe

Après avoir passé les vacances de fin d'année en France, notre amie Marthe nous a fait l'énorme gentillesse de ramener du fromage à raclette ainsi que de la charcuterie "Made In France" !
Avec Pau Din, Clement, Yann, Marthe et Jean, nous nous sommes bien regalés de pommes de terre cuites à point recouvertes de fromage fondu accompagné de son jambon, salami et autres saucissons avec un délicieux vin blanc frais pour digérer le tout... S'en est suivi des heures de discussions sur notre tendre jeunesse en France... ben oui, une raclette, cà ne se digère pas comme cà !

Un grand merci encore à Marthe pour cette délicate intention !

Beatrice's Baby Shower

Today was our friend Beatrice's Baby Shower. But, what is a "Baby Shower"?
A baby shower is a party in which expectant parents receive gifts for their expected or born child.
By convention, a baby shower is intended to help parents get items that they need for their baby, such as baby clothes.
It is a popular tradition in the United States and the baby shower is held only for the mother-to-be, and only women attend. (I heard that sometimes, a diaper shower is organized for the dad-to-be and that friends offer diapers...)
It is the occasion to discuss baby stuff, eat some cakes and do some games like:
- guess the mother-to-be's tummy circumference: guests cut pieces of ribbon to a length they believe matches the belly
- guess the baby food flavor: guests have to taste-test several flavors of baby food and try to identify them
- match celebrities babies names to their famous parents
- opening the gifts in front of the guests
and many other games.

In France, people traditionally visit the new parents after the baby is born and give a gift at this occasion. I think the baby shower is better since parents can prepare in advance what they need for the baby.

Happy New Year 2008 !!! Bonne Année 2008 !!!

Wishing you
a year that brings
Good health, good friends,
good luck, good things !

Happy New Year !

In this 1980 video, Agnetha (blonde) and Björn (standing) have been divorced for one year while Anni-Frid (brunette) and Benny (piano) would divorce in the following year.

ABBA LYRICS of "Happy New Year" song:

No more champagne
And the fireworks are through
Here we are, me and you
Feeling lost and feeling blue
It's the end of the party
And the morning seems so grey
So unlike yesterday
Now's the time for us to say...

Chorus
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don't we might as well lay down and die
You and I


Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he'll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he's astray
Keeps on going anyway...

Chorus

Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor
It's the end of a decade
In another ten years time
Who can say what we'll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine...

Chorus