As I speak, paparazzi are getting crazy all over the world after hearing that Rupert (Mono’s mascot) has been making his debut on an international music scene.
Indeed, Mr Rupert was seen in company of Mr Gnarly Snag (of Smokin’Fez Monkey band) and a fellow Monoïste, playing at FIMU (International Student Music Festival).
Mr Rupert also liked Mr Austin Walkin’Cane performance and sent his buddies to get some group picture :
All in one, Mr Rupert is pretty happy of these 3 festival days and he is now enjoying some well deserved rest together with his Monoïste.
Almost ever since I was able to read, I was always found the nose in a book during my free time. Even though computer is filling most of that time these days, I continue to enjoy a lot immersing myself in the book worlds.
Very soon, the books that hold most of my attention were fantasy ones and more specifically of the high fantasy kind (a genre popularized by Tolkien and Lewis among others). It’s this passion that I want to share here.
I had this idea of a list floating around the corners of my mind, a list where I would put the books I most liked. The kind of book that leaves you stunned and dazed after you have finished the whole series in a row. Recently, a friend told me that this sort of list would be a good inspiration for him as he was looking into entering that wonderful world too.
So, here we go :
My Pillars
- Lord of the Ring – Tolkien
- Narnia – CS Lewis
- Royal Assassin – Robin Hobb
- Raven Chronicles – James Barclay
- The Wheel of Time – Robert Jordan
- The Sword of Truth – Terry Goodking
- Shannara – Terry Brooks
Other excellent series
- Ages of the Fives – Trudi Cavanan
- Black Magician – Trudi Cavanan
- The Belgariad – David Eddings
- Everworld – K. A. Applegate
- Eragon – Christopher Paolini
- Bartimeus Trilogy – Jonathan Stroud
Fantasy a little bit different
- Tales of the Otori – Lian Hearn
- The Wind of Fire – William Nicholson
- Darren Shan – Darren Shan
- Chronicles of Ancient Darkness – Michele Paver
- The Reindeer People – Megan Lindholm
Of course, this list can’t possibly be exhaustive. Fantasy books are like Internet websites, after finishing one you still have another dozen that have appeared in the meantime.
Now, I hope this friend will feed me with his own list of science-fiction books 
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It’s like I’m trying to complete my monthly blogging quota in just one evening but, anyway, here is for me :
“Reliquat d’une époque depuis longtemps révolue ; symbole d’une ère plus heureuse à venir”
Tentatively translated : “Remaining of an epoch long gone ; symbol of an happier era to come”
Instructions :
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open it to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
Spread the love.
FOSDEM crowd
After 2 days of sparse sleep, beer events and running everywhere trying to see as much conferences as possible (when are we going to get cloning facility for that sort of thing ?) it was already time to pack all the bought goodies and take the train back to France.
Overall, as a first time, I must say FOSDEM was fantastic. Congrats to the organization people as I’m sure it must give headaches to run something of this scale.
Talks were all interesting and we got to socialize with really nice people. What a shame we were so tight on schedule that we had to leave before the end on Sunday (which mean we didn’t see Leslie GSoC talk, *snif*).
Funnily, when at first Manuel and I thought we were going to be the only ones of our school present at the event, in the end we : slept at a past student’s place, met a bunch more at the beer event and even found conferences given by UTBM folks (including one of our teacher). The world sure is small.
I also finally met super Andreia (Winforms fame) and super Alp (Managed D-Bus fame, btw spread the hype) though rather quickly unfortunately (a food/drink/hack session next time folks ?).
Since I’m probably one of the worst photographer ever, you can take a look at Manuel’s photo stream for the usual pretty pixel set (Reflex aren’t only for showing off apparently ).
!
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). Enjoyed 
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