P鋨e Cent

Phonetically, you could mistake it for ersan?which is the French for ersian? But the manes of Darius and Xerxes would be ashamed if you ever tried to tie them with this?o:p>

This means  in fact ?nbsp;Father One Hundred?and this is the little bout of cavorting high school students indulge in 100 days before the baccalaureat, which is the final exam for college, before University here in France. You would have thought that this year, students would have been somewhat tired of the month of demonstrations they have been through after the Education Minister ill advisedly tried to reform said exam ?o:p>

 Now, before I proceed, I have to give you a glimpse of how a typical 鋨e Cent?proceeds?Colleges are well aware of it, and take all necessary dispositions to avoid too much trouble, in the guise of very, very stern warnings to would be offenders. Nobody likes to get fired from school for disciplinarian reasons?which leaves the kids?former high schools as opportunity targets. Well, since theye no longer our pupils, we cannot expel them any more can we? And they have, having spent some 4 years here, a very good knowledge of the place and its weak points?o:p>

Ah, I see youe starting to understand?Indeed, P鋨e Cent is, for high schools students and teachers, some kind of siege game, with defenders (mainly janitors, directors and people responsible for keeping order) having to sortie  to allow arriving pupils in. Said pupils have of course to run the blockade, and, like the defenders, face the perils of being pelted with  flour and rotten eggs. Eventually, of course, and sooner than later, high schools call in the police?but with so few policemen, the siege turns to a game of hide and seek, with sneaky commandos moving suddenly under the walls to bombard the courtyard?This is a day you have to be wise in your pick of a parking place for your car (as if you had much choice in it anyway..) Well, parking the car under the windows of the school was very unwise in this respect?Drifting clouds of flour eventually blanketed my windscreen. Another wise thing to do is to wipe it dry. Do NOT use any water in the process, it usually turns the floor into a sticky mess that will have dried into a crust by the time you leave the danger zone (Ah, well, of course, do not attempt to clean anything from without, unless you do not mind giving the opposition the advantage of surprise). And when I drove home, I had the pleasure to see how some places in Bordeaux would look under the snow?a huge waste, I have to say, all the more for me who have seen how hard it is for Malagasy, for instance,  to eke out a living. Very sadly, these spoiled brats are giving as selfish and uncaring an example of our way of life as you could dream up. Not that are much disturbed by it though?o:p>

Camospecs

This week saw my first mechs be displayed on the Camospecs site. It is an understatement to say I am happy and proud of it. This is an endeavour I started on nearly a year ago, with some failures before I reached my goal. My first submission, of which I was extremely confident it would win me my entry was rejected. Of the 5 mechs I had submitted, only one was deemed acceptable, the other four, for various reasons, being rejected. I will not lie about it, and tell you I was not somewhat taken aback by this?but after the the first angry and incredulous reaction, I started to read beck the rejection message, and I saw it in a different light altogether. For each miniature, I was told what was wrong, and why it did not make it. This was definitely very very helpful, all the more that the jury was very straightforward in their judgement. Just let me say that they are more positive in their opinion, when requested, in the public CBT forums. Hence, if you want to submit, do it. If you are rejected, you will know what to work upon.

So after a few weeks digesting this, I started back the process to paint 5 mechs, which I duly photographed last September. This time, the answer was way more positive my painting was deemed acceptable but the way I took photographs was not. Hmmmm?I am no professional photographer, but I have never been too awkward with a camera. So I borrowed all the photographic books from the school library. After some reading came the wait for proper light conditions. It seemed the weather would never improve enough for me to do it?Eventually it did and so I could shoot them again, and be accepted.

http://camospecs.com/Artists.asp?ArtistID=40

This tuesday, I had dinner in a restaurant with my brother. A very good meal at the oupina? a very good place in Bordeaux : www.latupina.com .

They make typical traditional cooking, with some oie gras ? poultry on spits, boletus?Tasty indeed, but very caloric. Anyway, the best part of the evening was not the meal but the way there. With my brother, we went through Bordeaux into streets we used to tread when we were living there with our parents. Brought back memories, so much so that I had the impression of beloved ghosts walking alongside us .

Fan Councils

Sad week overall, as it seems the Fan Councils role playing game, which had been going online on Classic Battletech for 6 months now has come to an end. It would be pointless to argue and moan over the reasons which have led the moderating team to take  this decision. Il rather express my surprise, and my awe, at seeing such a vast endeavour (heck, all factions in play, and nearly 100 players at the same time) run for so long. It speaks volumes for the dedication of the moderation team?o:p>

Looking back, I must say this has been a tremendous experience for me. I still remembering a post where TwinkieMonkie was recounting a similar experience in a huge diplomatic role playing diplomatic game held in the course of her studies at some political school. I been jealous of it, I have to admit it. I had played a few games of Diplomacy or Empires in Arms, but a board game held in the course of an evening, or several in the case of EIA, is really a poor substitute to how it must feel to govern a state. In this respect, the FC game beat my expectations to an undreamed of point. There was no God eye point of view, but a fog of war that was enhanced by the difficulty to communicate with other players . Private messages and instant messengers are but a poor second to direct conversation, which the distances made unthinkable (didn want to bankrupt myself in the process , * chuckles *).

So here I stood after my return from the beach in August, with a game that was starting in earnest, a feat it had failed to accomplish the previous year. Of course, the Federated Suns are not the weakest nation in the Battletech universe?but they are a focal point for aggression by many players who resent their favoured place in the canon and the fiction. I was really wondering whether I have to face some general coalition at a time the Suns were hardly ready to face it. There came the team. I have been more than impressed with the skill and the dedication the FS team has worked, and held, throughout the game. We have been thrown our fair share of crises and they have faced and beaten all of them in universe, each  time finding the best way to achieve results. That the Suns stand now bigger than they started, allied with several major powers is a testimony to their work.