Enfin posé, sur le lit, déménagement fini.

365 #010: Last Night in Richmond

365 #010: Last Night in Richmond
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Tomorrow we're giving back the apartment to the owner. This flat was the best one I've ever lived in, and I have moved a lot.
Tonight we could have done as usual, foraging for food in the fridge and the cupboards, sleep too late, and pack later.
Instead we went to "our" Ben & Jerry's across the bridge, took some photos there, walked the river Thames, and for our last night in the Richmond Borough, we tried to eat at the H20, an expensive floating restaurant, but is was fully booked.
Then we tried to order delivery from "our" Thai restaurant, who makes the best pad Thai noodles in the worlds, but they apparently lost their driver.

So we had a Chinese delivery, watched King of Queens, pretending it's just another day, to cover the sadness of leaving this place.

365 #009: Second Certification

365 #009: Second Certification
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

On Tuesday and Wednesday, while I was in France, two of my colleagues where trained on Aperture, for an official certification. So I had to take the test without getting the training. And I passed anyway, with the same score I got on the Final Cut Pro test a couple of months ago.

That felt good, so went and bought some books for Imhara and me, some old photos books on Paris and London, and Lady Cottington's Book of Fairies.

I'm now certified for Aperture and Final Cut Pro

Aperture certification dans 30 minutes. Pas stressé du tout.

365 #008: 28st August 2008

365 #008: 28st August 2008
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Tomorrow, I'm trying the test to get the Apple Aperture Certification. I should work on that. Instead. I spend countless hours playing with Photoshop. I could stand on the argument that it might help for the test, but I have no legs.

365 #007: 27st August 2008

365 #007: 27st August 2008
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

I got the idea in the train; it ends up being a lot simpler than I wanted it to be, I wanted a larger frame with me seen from the back as well, including my shoulders, at least. But I would need a tripod and I don't have one, so I have to hold the camera myself.
Roughly 25 seconds of edit in Photoshop and the picture was done!

Hungry, thirsty, tired and cold: welcome back to the UK.

Approaching London. Is the train late?

J'ai couru comme un dératé pour avoir 15 minutes d'avance à mon train.

A l'heure, mais en avance par rapport à mon interlocuteur.

365 #006: 26st August 2008

365 #006: 26st August 2008 Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Three shots a couple of hour apart, taken at my good friend's Laurent, with my Nikon D40 but with three different lenses. On the left a fish eye, 10.5mm/ƒ2.8, a lovely piece of kit that unfortunately doesn't do autofocus on my camera, and it shows; in the middle a wonderful 17-50mm/ƒ2.8, that gives you light whether you zoom out or not, and on the right my usual 18-55mm. Assembled with three layers and two masks in Photoshop, with very little colour correction, and again, it shows.

Retour chez Laurent après déjeuner avec Cécile.

Breakfast: thé, biscottes, confiture de framboise et Tudors S01e01.

365 #005: 25st August 2008

365 #005: 25st August 2008 Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

In the car between my mother's and my sister's, it's a bright sunny day and it feels so different than London. Yoohoo agrees wholeheartedly.

Wow, Edge connection works in the Parisian underground.

I screwed the wrong screws and therefore feel like a loser. Thanks Ikea.

assembling Ikea furniture and loving it.

365 #004: 24st August 2008

365 #004: 24st August 2008 Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Back to the room I grew up in (well, during high school and my first year of Law) for a couple days at my parents'. Sticking the stars on the ceiling was a dreamer's way to mark my territory in this new place, new region, with a new school and no friends. I was 16. When I put the stars on this ceiling I had to fight the urge to create actual constellations, because I wouldn't be able to get it right, because stars wouldn't be the right proportions, because I would never have enough of them. So I wanted to put them at random, mimicking nature, to cover more or less evenly the surface above my bed. And I failed as well, OCD took over and there is a pattern, each star is almost exactly the same distance of the other ones. I'm 30 now, I haven't grown up one bit.

Arrivé à Montigny les Cormeilles.

Landing in Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Let's take off.

Bastards BAA took away the English jam I was bringing for my mom.

On the bus 490 to Heathrow Terminal 5.

Waiting for the bus to Heathrow.

365 #003: 23st August 2008

365 #003: 23st August 2008 Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Today is tourist-day! Woke up too early (9am) to go buy jam at the market, then took a bus and a train to ride the London Eye, queued for an hour to actually get on the thing. The London Eye is awesome, feels safe, too short, and I would kill for a ride without the others so I can get to all the windows without dodging loose kids and crumbling elders. Magic of the two shots above : Imhara took a picture of me shooting me, so of course I had to do a split screen. I opted for black-and-white for her photo because getting the same colours out of our two cameras seems impossible to me, + this 365 things is all about me taking the picture. After that we had lunch with a very friendly squirrel at Embankment, then spent too much time for my feet (but not enough for my eyes) in the National Gallery. More photos to come, I think I shot about 400 today. I didn't even fill a 2GB memory card.

365 #002: 22st August 2008 (bonus)

365 #002: 22st August 2008 (bonus) Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

As promised earlier today, here is the video, or more accurately the timelapse of the hard drive swap in my MacBook Pro. You'll notice this photo is my current background.

Épisode 185, 0:21, 2.5 Mo

365 #002: 22st August 2008

365 #002: 22st August 2008
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

I'm tired but happy. Here are the steps I had to do tonight:
• just to be safe, I ran a Time Machine backup on the MacBook Pro and the Mac mini.
• I connected the MacBook Pro to the Mac mini in target mode to get all the data from the internal 160GB hard drive to an external 500GB. And that's all the data, an exact clone of the drive, using the Restore command in Disk Utility.
• then I opened the external drive enclosure to take the 500GB drive, and opened the MacBook Pro to remove the 160GB.
• I fitted the 500GB Samsung Spinpoint 2.5-inch 9mm thick hard drive into the MacBook Pro.
• I was then able to consolidate my 200GB iTunes library on one drive instead of using an external one, and do the same to my Aperture library.

The video of the operation is coming soon.
As promised yesterday this is taken with a real camera, so I could film as well.

I've received my 500gb for my Macbook Pro, at last. Transfering data now.

365 #001: 21st August 2008

365 #001: 21st August 2008
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Just a few minutes after midnight, here is my first shot at this 365 thing. I'm hoping to be more serious at this than I am at blogging, then podcasting, then twittering, all things I've done and cowardly abandoned, more or less.

My first tool here is my MacBook Pro, the one thing I never travel (or do anything, almost) without. Tomorrow, I promise, a photo taken with a camera :D

By the way, I've already done something like this before knowing of the 365 group, you can see my first effort in my Pic-a-Day Project set.

Apple was right again

I hope there'll be breakfast.

J'ai beau aimer Wacom, se lever avant 7h pour un training, c'est dur.

iPod shuffle family

iPod shuffle family
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

Marionette Militia background

Marionette Militia background
Originally uploaded by Aurelien S

A very tiring one-day week-end.