Recently in Californication Category
Today was my last day as an intern at Texas Instruments in San Diego. It was a great experience. I learned a lot from all the people I worked with.
I am going back to France next Thursday. I have to go back to school for at least something like 6 months (hopefully not much more) and then I will try to come back here in San Diego or somewhere around San Diego County or Orange County.
As a surprisingly cheerful side note, Juliann kind of invited me to a sushi bar yesterday night, sort of a goodbye dinner (she is off to the Bahamas until Tuesday). Nothing exciting but I am really glad she did it.
I am going back to France next Thursday. I have to go back to school for at least something like 6 months (hopefully not much more) and then I will try to come back here in San Diego or somewhere around San Diego County or Orange County.
As a surprisingly cheerful side note, Juliann kind of invited me to a sushi bar yesterday night, sort of a goodbye dinner (she is off to the Bahamas until Tuesday). Nothing exciting but I am really glad she did it.
This Sunday I was at The Casbah, the club in San Diego you want to go to if you are into indie rock. Great people, Guinness and good music is all that I needed. I got to discover Softlightes and Oh No! Oh My! but I was there for Au Revoir Simone, a 3 girls indie pop band from Boston for those who don't know them (shame on you).
It was the first time I saw them in concert and it is wicked awesome. Even though they were kinda sick (Erika started coughing at the beginning of Don't see the sorrow, they had to start it all over again), it was still really good. Annie is completely crazy when she plays keyboard. I took some really bad pictures, enjoy.
It was the first time I saw them in concert and it is wicked awesome. Even though they were kinda sick (Erika started coughing at the beginning of Don't see the sorrow, they had to start it all over again), it was still really good. Annie is completely crazy when she plays keyboard. I took some really bad pictures, enjoy.
Mathieu leaves next Thursday. Heleni, next Saturday. My plane takes off in one and a half week. We have to go back to school for something like 6 months and hopefully come back (at least, I'd like to).
We met quite a bunch of great people. We could not go without a last dinner together. We first went bowling with Mike, Arnaud and Thomas. I really suck at this game but it was fun. Then, we went to BJ's, a brewery, in Tustin, CA. Adrien, Dot, Wendy, Aarti and Gildas joined us a little later. Dot and Wendy had prepared special cookies for the three of us. Here are some pictures taken during the dinner. We finished the night in a bar in Costa Mesa, playing pool.
We met quite a bunch of great people. We could not go without a last dinner together. We first went bowling with Mike, Arnaud and Thomas. I really suck at this game but it was fun. Then, we went to BJ's, a brewery, in Tustin, CA. Adrien, Dot, Wendy, Aarti and Gildas joined us a little later. Dot and Wendy had prepared special cookies for the three of us. Here are some pictures taken during the dinner. We finished the night in a bar in Costa Mesa, playing pool.
Yet another exhausting but awesome weekend... I was in Vegas with some friends, most of them from Aleks. Mike , Arnaud, Thomas and I arrived at the Riviera around 12:30am. Mathieu, Heleni, Arnaud, and Dot had arrived an hour before and were already playing slots downtown. Time to check in and drop our bags in the rooms, we were heading to Slots-A-Fun, right across the street, to play blackjack and wait for Gregoire, who was coming from San Francisco, to arrive. David and Sophie joined us a little later in the night.
The one thing I will never get used to is how fast time goes in Vegas. You sit at a blackjack table around 1am, play a little (or at least you think so), take a look outside and it is already dawn. It happened to me every single time I went there. Mathieu, Heleni and I were hungry so we decided to have breakfast at 6:30am, before going to bed.
I woke up at 1pm, took a shower real quick and we went to The Palm for lunch. Then we visited a few casinos: the Bellagio and the Paris LV. I had already seen them before but Gregoire and Thomas were Vegas newbies. Heleni, Mathieu and I went gambling a little and then we went to the Treasure Island to watch Mystere, a show by Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing! Then we walked back to Slots-A-Fun. It was much cooler than during the day (~110°F, dry heat, dry wind). I gambled till 4am and went to bed exhausted.
On Sunday, I woke up at 11:55am (check-out time, 12pm...), jumped into the shower and went to the Wynn. We had the Champagne Brunch at The Buffet, one of the best buffets on the strip. We ate a lot. The food was really good. The spanish sparkling wine they served was alright.
Finally, we ended up at Casino Royale and played blackjack switch. Interesting but it goes really fast since you play two hands at a time.
We finally left Vegas around 6pm and arrived in Irvine at 11:20pm. I still had to drive all the way down to San Diego before passing out on my bed.
Update: It looks like I also passed out in the car, on the way back to Irvine.
The one thing I will never get used to is how fast time goes in Vegas. You sit at a blackjack table around 1am, play a little (or at least you think so), take a look outside and it is already dawn. It happened to me every single time I went there. Mathieu, Heleni and I were hungry so we decided to have breakfast at 6:30am, before going to bed.
I woke up at 1pm, took a shower real quick and we went to The Palm for lunch. Then we visited a few casinos: the Bellagio and the Paris LV. I had already seen them before but Gregoire and Thomas were Vegas newbies. Heleni, Mathieu and I went gambling a little and then we went to the Treasure Island to watch Mystere, a show by Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing! Then we walked back to Slots-A-Fun. It was much cooler than during the day (~110°F, dry heat, dry wind). I gambled till 4am and went to bed exhausted.
On Sunday, I woke up at 11:55am (check-out time, 12pm...), jumped into the shower and went to the Wynn. We had the Champagne Brunch at The Buffet, one of the best buffets on the strip. We ate a lot. The food was really good. The spanish sparkling wine they served was alright.
Finally, we ended up at Casino Royale and played blackjack switch. Interesting but it goes really fast since you play two hands at a time.
We finally left Vegas around 6pm and arrived in Irvine at 11:20pm. I still had to drive all the way down to San Diego before passing out on my bed.
Update: It looks like I also passed out in the car, on the way back to Irvine.
Yay! I spent most of this Sunday wandering around San Diego Convention Center, dodging dressed up people, staring at game previews on wide screens, admiring artists drawing sketches for fans as fast as I would write my own name on a piece of paper.
I arrived there around 10am. I thought it would be a pain in the ass to find a parking spot since the convention center is downtown (south of Gas Lamp district) so my laziness made me choose the easy way: I parked my car in a mall parking lot. It took me about 30 minutes to actually arrive inside the center (time to walk, wait in the online registration line, get my badge and find my way to the first conference). The place is huge and was heavily crowded. No wonder all the tickets were sold out before the first day.
I attended to a conference by Nicolas and Weston Cage (Nicolas's son). They were presenting their brand new comics, Voodoo Child. More interesting than I would have thought in the first place. I got out of the conference room by 11:30am and went to the gignormous exhibition hall. There were like 4000 different booths, including huge ones (Marvel, DC Comics, LucasArts, Capcom, Square Enix, ...) and a lot smaller ones.
I could not leave without checking out Jeph Jacques's booth (Questionable Content). I managed to find him and bought a "She Blinded Me With Library Science" shirt. I also asked for a quick sketch and he drew me a thinking Hannelore.
I was about to go back home when I spotted Stephan Martiniere in the Design Studio Press booth. For those who don't know him, he is a talented illustrator and animation director (worked on Star Wars: epsiode II and III). I could not resist buying his latest illustrations book, Quantumscapes.
I finally called it a day and took off around 4pm.
I arrived there around 10am. I thought it would be a pain in the ass to find a parking spot since the convention center is downtown (south of Gas Lamp district) so my laziness made me choose the easy way: I parked my car in a mall parking lot. It took me about 30 minutes to actually arrive inside the center (time to walk, wait in the online registration line, get my badge and find my way to the first conference). The place is huge and was heavily crowded. No wonder all the tickets were sold out before the first day.
I attended to a conference by Nicolas and Weston Cage (Nicolas's son). They were presenting their brand new comics, Voodoo Child. More interesting than I would have thought in the first place. I got out of the conference room by 11:30am and went to the gignormous exhibition hall. There were like 4000 different booths, including huge ones (Marvel, DC Comics, LucasArts, Capcom, Square Enix, ...) and a lot smaller ones.
I could not leave without checking out Jeph Jacques's booth (Questionable Content). I managed to find him and bought a "She Blinded Me With Library Science" shirt. I also asked for a quick sketch and he drew me a thinking Hannelore.
I was about to go back home when I spotted Stephan Martiniere in the Design Studio Press booth. For those who don't know him, he is a talented illustrator and animation director (worked on Star Wars: epsiode II and III). I could not resist buying his latest illustrations book, Quantumscapes.
I finally called it a day and took off around 4pm.
A month ago, I was invited to Dot and Adrien's engagement/housewarming/meet the future bride's parents party. Adrien is Mathieu's supervisor at Aleks. He is a cool French guy from Nice (nobody's perfect :)). He is getting married with Dot, a great outgoing, funny gal. They organized an awesome barbecue party to celebrate this. Here are some pictures taken during the afternoon.
