Hugo’s blog

Eric pointed me to the Falling Sand Game. It is cool and addictive. And time consuming.

According to sources, a reunion of the Smashing Pumpkins is really under-way, as opposed to it being just crazy rumors. Sweet!

I hope that they’ll play in France, not like in 2003 when Billy Corgan was touring with Zwan and they cancelled the shows planned in France, supposedly because tickets weren’t selling as well as they were hoping (the show in Paris had been moved from the Zénith to the Bataclan before completely being cancelled).

I’ve been raving about podcasts to people around me for the past month. It’s time for me to play my broken record to a broader audience.

Podcasts are cool!

I’m listening to radio shows as podcasts and they have really changed my life.

Do you feel that your are out of touch with what’s happening in the world and in your country?

Easily solved by podcasts. You can get the news, and be aware of what’s happening in the world in half an hour, whereever you are.

For French people, I recommend L’essentiel de l’info en 25′ d’Europe 1 and la revue de presse de France Inter.

Do you enjoy listening to people making endless pedantic analysises about the last football (soccer) games?

You can’t live without podcasts! You can hear Eugène Saccomano and friends on RTL whenever you want, or Guy Roux and his buddies on Europe 1.

Do you need extra motivation when you go running?

Podcasts are here for you. Listening to music isn’t always easy as I have a tendency to align my running on the song’s tempo, which isn’t so great. However, you can listen to radio shows on the topics you like, that you would not have the time to listen to otherwise.

Do you spend too much time on a plane?

I do. Spending more than 10 hours on a plane gets tiring quickly, as you’re stuck in this confined environment with not much to do. This is when listening to a stupid talk show helps a lot: you have the feeling that you’re not on a plane anymore, that there’s tons of activity around you, that you’re actually in the real world.

For French people, I started to like listening to Laurent Ruquier’s show. Despite not being a fan of Ruquier, it’s very light and gives you 1h30 of fresh air during which you forget you’re on a plane.

Finally, it has allowed me to discover interesting radio shows, that I am very happy to listen to regardless of where I am (in the street, on the subway, at home), like Frédéric Taddéi’s daily interview or Didier Porte’s chronicle.

I haven’t looked at other types of podcasts yet, though I’m not sure I would have time to actually listen to them. The only downside is that I find myself listening to music less. It will probably even out in the long run.

Via Gizmodo, the price of the Pentax *ist DL goes down to $600, which seems like a really good deal for a digital SLR kit.

As I’m still in the market for replacing my dying S30, this is an interesting option. However, despite Gizmodo calling it a fabulous *ist DL digital SLR kit, I have not been able to find a single in-depth review it on the usual digital photography sites to confirm this, and Google isn’t helping either.