Karine Candela and Thierry Kormann's weblog

Songs that are really a blast to play!

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — July 15, 2005 at 12:53PM

Everyone seems to be pretty eager to find out how my guitar practice is going these days. Even my lab-mates at work are begging me to bring my guitar in and play something for them. I guess they all would like to know why my left hand fingers are covered with callouses.

Actually, guitar strumming has simply become an addictive passion for me. I am devoting a lot of time learning different kinds of guitar styles/techniques such as the finger picking, the arpeggios, the hand-tapping for percussion effects.

This fascinating hobby has turned my life upside down: I rehearse 2 hours daily, have music sheets, sticks, guitar wires scattered everywhere in my flat!!

However, only a few privileged people have ever heard me performing live: my beloved Eka, my great guitar mentor Claude, my best friend Laurent and a few other supportive ex lab-mates from Panchim (but only over the phone), my sarcastic geek friend Steph, my neighbours, my cool on-line pals Philip and Robert over the internet.

Anyway, I really have made tremendous progress over the months while playing the guitar. I finally seem to have reached some control over my clumsy fingers. My barre chords still sound muffled though (especially the hard F chord and all the A scheme resulting barre chords), but they all pass in time now, no blank in between changing chords.

I also have managed to improve my rhythmic patterns. Now whenever I turn on the radio, I can more or less guess the key of the song, the chords involved and propose a rhythm that could match. Even Eka is pretty amazed how quick I can catch up with tunes. Here is a selection of authentic great acoustic guitar songs that I enjoy playing on and on :

"Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd, "Weather with you" by Crowded House, "More than words" by Extreme, "Good riddance (time of your life)" by Green Day, "The River" by Bruce Springsteen, some of the wonderful Oasis songs like "Wonderwall", "Champagne Supernova", "Stand by me", "Little by Little", a few funny songs by Travis especially the bass parts in "Why does it always rain on me?" "Side", "Re-offender", a few cheerful songs from Hootie and the Blowfish and last but not least the fantastic "Mr Jones" by Counting Crows which really jazzes the whole house up.

So, yes my guitar repertoire has pretty much increased over the last six months and so have the accuracy and the eagerness of my ears. Maybe one day, when I'll have my 30th middle age crisis, I'll be so fed up with Chemistry that I�ll start touring all across Europe. Who knows?

Yes, I am still alive...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — April 25, 2005 at 06:45PM

It�s been ages since I've come here to post a blog; I wonder if I still recall how this works... Anyway, after months of silence, I thought I'd drop a few lines for those who might wonder what has happened to me within the past few months.

To make a long story a short one: work has been on my mind a lot and so has guitar playing. Being the perfectionist and passionate woman that I am, I put all my energy and heart to get things done the proper way and it is finally starting to pay-off professionally and musically speaking . Even Stephane has acknowledged that I make a decent acoustic guitar accompanier now, when he strummed the solo part of that "Wish you were here" song on my Malibu Strato Fender electric guitar (See the awesome picture of my vintage sunburst guitar below).

However, as every form of refuge has its price, my on-line time has suffered a bit from all the challenging changes going on in my life. I barely ever come to the #chemistry channel to chat with people I used to. The only on-line pals I still talk to on a weekly basis are Philip and Bobby when I log on to MSN to check my e-mail account. So Sam and Alex, this short message is for you:

Don't worry, I am still alive and Life is treating me fairly! I miss you too guys and I'd like to thank you for keeping up with me via emails even if I make a very lousy long distance on-line friend these days. I'll try to make efforts to be more available on-line so that we all get a chance to have entertaining powwows together again.

When Eka�s boss calls me up...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — December 12, 2004 at 05:20PM

Something funny happened over the weekend. On Friday, as I was coming back from guitar practice and grocery shopping, Fabien, aka Eka's boss, gave me a buzz home.

At first, I thought that he wanted to talk with Eka who was at that moment on a return plane from Paris. But it turned out that he was aware of Eka not being around yet and that he had simply called to kindly ask me if I could let Eka leave for a one-week trip to L.A, starting Monday. As if I were such a huge tyrant!!!

What I hadn't entirely grasped at that time though, was how poorly organized Eka�s accommodations to L.A were going to be like maybe due to a lack of time in planning out well such an unexpected trip.

Anyway, to make a long story short: all is well that ends well now cos Eka got an excellent bargain on a last minute plane ticket booking to L.A (even flying with a major airline company) which enabled him to save up to 20% off from a regular ticket. So I just wanted to thank Fabien and all the other people involved in that process for having moved heaven and earth, especially during a weekend, so that my beloved Eka has a pleasant trip to L.A.

Sunny weekend in London...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — November 21, 2004 at 01:15PM

A lot of people are complaining about me not putting enough pictures or crunchy stories about my life these days. Well to be totally honest, Eka and I are working together on a brand new project: another gallery of great pictures from us that should be available, hopefully, before the end of this year. So more haste no speed!!

In the meantime, to test your patience, I thought I would post some pictures taken last weekend from one of our favourite spots in London, namely Hyde Park. For the record, I had never seen such a huge pelican in my entire life. Has anyone had?

Another cool hat...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — October 31, 2004 at 11:39AM

I don't have much to blog about. Life has had its share of ups and downs lately. For those who might be interested, we haven't found our puppy yet.

Actually, it is more Eka than I who is pushing for getting a dog. Some might find it selfish but for the time being, I still enjoy sleeping in late on weekends or flying away for unexpected trips throughout Europe, without worrying about walking the dog when it is pouring outside or wondering who will look after it while we are gone .

Moving on to more cheerful subjects, last weekend, Eka and I went to a store hat and he was very patient cos I did try a lot of winter hats on and finally bought two well actually three (cos one is a purple knitted beret he hasn't seen of yet: oops, now I spit it out - I fear some severe retaliations against me like a pillow fight or the purchase of an Atari ST all rotten and dusty from eBay) .

Speaking of hats, in the meantime, I thought I might end up this blog by posting a picture of me in another cool straw summer hat. Don't worry, I shall update you with more pictures of me in my stunning winter hats as soon as the weather allows me to wear them...

Gone swimming...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — July 11, 2004 at 03:41PM

Well, we aimed at going for a swim this morning by the beach called "La Poisse". Unfortunately, the water was rather chilly (we should have brought our body board shorty with) and full of jelly fish (some might see the irony in this and say that I am a magnet to gelatinous stuff!). Anyway, we just picked a lovely spot by the rocks, chilled out and sunbathed for a while

Fifi and his Momo lady cat (Part II)

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — July 11, 2004 at 03:28PM

More funny pictures from Momo and Fifi. Momo lady cat looks at her best but Fifi seems to be a little wasted on that picture. But he pretty much insisted on me putting it up on the blog so that everyone could see his "Serial killer" profile face and can roll on the floor laughing!

Fifi and his Momo lady cat (Part I)

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — June 27, 2004 at 11:30AM

I always rant about how bizarre, cold and shallow some of the people I run into on the internet often are. However, there are a few nice and interesting people out there and Fifi definitively belongs to such people!

I have been chatting with him for almost 8 months and the more I get to know him the more I appreciate him. Our conversations topics usually vary from no really important daily routine stuff to complex organic reactions cos he likes organic synthesis a lot, especially when I scan him drawings of mechanisms!

Furthermost, he is always in a good mood and has a terrific sense of humour. Actually, even Eka enjoys learning about his funny stories (how much he can drink and how often he makes out in clubs while being completely hung over!). Btw, Eka really had a good laugh once when he was updated my computer and that Fifi assumed that I was on line while I was at the gyms and he called me out "Hello, Princess!".

Anyway, this young drop dead gorgeous bloke, looking a little like Brad Pitt, who oddly enough is born on the same day as mine but a few years later, has a cute cat called Momo and I promised him that I should introduce her to one of the cats from my neighbourhood and that she may become a star on my website. So here are Fifi and his Momo lady cat!

Updating our photo gallery

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — June 26, 2004 at 05:26PM

A lot of friends from the Booba's fan club are complaining about me not putting up enough available pictures of our Easter trip to London and our surfing expedition to the wild South western coast of France. Actually, this is not entirely my fault since Eka is in charge of techniques here; I only interfere for artistic suggestions, adding my creative feminine touch.

Anyway, I am pleased to announce that those 2 oversights have been now corrected. Pictures are often worth a million words, so enjoy our shows!

Looking young and fabulous!

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — June 4, 2004 at 01:00PM

This is my favourite picture of the moment: me wearing my straw hat and Eka with his "fashion" sunglasses on. So, tomorrow we are off for a 2 weeks romantic surfing trip to the South western coast of France.

We have been to Hossegor (near Biarritz) before: the landscape, the beaches, the Ocean are just fantastic so much better and wilder than down here on The Mediterranean. Hopefully, I will survive the roughness of the Atlantic cos last time, I tried to fight against the Ocean, I almost drowned myself, lost part of my bikini in the water and got rocks in my shorty pants! Don't laugh!

This is not a typical "Baywatch" scenario, guys! I have no intention what so ever to be the attraction of the beach...

Easter trip to London

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — April 13, 2004 at 07:45PM

Approximately, six months after our lovely escapade to London last November, Eka and I went back there for Easter break. And guess what? This time, the weather was quite good which is something rather unusual for England. England under the sunshine, that had to be immortalized (pictures kindly lent by Alex or taken by Eka). I didn't get the chance to visit Alex who was in the vicinity of London for the holidays but we will save that for another special occasion: this summer in Portugal during guitar gigs .

We met up with Isabelle in Cambridge, walked through Colleges where Newton did some of his work. We even had lunch and pints of beer in a pub called "The Eagle" where Watson and Crick used to hang out quite often while discovering the mysteries of DNA.

Of course being the good shopper that I am, I couldn't have possibly gone to London without getting me a new hat. So I got me this cool straw hat and Eka told me that I looked like a flower amongst flowers. And so did Sam who crowned me "Boobachca, Queen of flowers". Isn't that sweet? I love the nick, Sam, btw! Only you, Russian gangster, could have come up with something so hilarious.

Well guys, wait until summer time comes, when I am all tan, blonder than ever (Viking genes) wearing a flowery dress with my straw hat on cos this is only spring, I haven't blossomed yet.

Finally, for the record, I looked a little hunchbacky in that picture cos Eka took it by surprise while he was telling me practical jokes and while I was picking up all my shopping bags from the floor. Anyway, a good laugh a day (at the very least) keeps all my dark clouds away and so does an intensive hour of rowing and hitting a punching bag at the gym

Some guys are so rude!

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — April 4, 2004 at 06:14PM

I don't particularly enjoy ranting but lately things have been pretty disappointing. Feels like it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back. So be prepared guys: it is pay back time cos my patience has some limits!

First to the moron, I am currently working with:

From the first day we have been asked to work together you didn't like me (you told me that and to my face among a few other very rude things...). You harassed me verbally on and on, yelled at me whenever you wanted to communicate with me, pretended that I didn't keep you informed on the progress of my research. I kept on telling myself that you would stop your weirdo attitude cos you are a smart guy indeed. Unfortunately, your scientific skills don't hold the candle compared to your psychopathic/paranoid problems. You are a gold medallist in fucking things up and screwing up any feasible relationship on a professional level. So you won. I will be quitting my job in Monaco at the end of the month cos I can adapt myself to a lot of different environments but I can never work under martial laws. I am also grabbing the opportunity to thank all card carrying members of the Booba fan club who offered me their support/time during this dreadful event. Some wanted to come to Monaco just to beat the guy up so that he finally understood how to behave around an angel. It wouldn't have changed a single thing though. Some guys are just useless scums!

Speaking of respect, here comes the second guy I wanna complain about: Anthony, aka the mysterious guy, too fashionably sensitive but also too cool to care. I don't know what has gotten into you lately but you deceived me a lot. All I have ever asked of you was respect, authenticity and honesty: all the things that are so important in any reliable friendship. Wonder if you ever understood the meaning of those words. You ran away like a big coward, avoided any forms of dialogs, deliberately kept on forgetting sending me back my booklet when you perfectly knew that it was something that mattered to me. For your information, Anthony, you didn't have to put so much effort to piss me off cos I was already very upset by your inconsistent behaviour towards me. Not very gentleman but in good agreement with true Tony's style. Btw, do me a favour: please write me off your friends' list on your website. I don't want to have a single thing linked up with you, especially now when I know how you despise people you meet on irc (see your very hurtful blog).

Last but not least:

Thank God, there are a few good and sweet guys out there. Thank you, Eka for this wonderful breakfast in bed this morning. One thing leading to another, we all know how this ends up. Gigantic pillow fight, good laughs and tickling times to spice things up just to mention a few...

Isabelle: a short visit on the French Riviera

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:38:15 +0000

My good friend Isabelle and her British boyfriend Richard came to visit us last weekend. We had a wonderful lunch in a very typical Southern cooking type of restaurant in downtown Nice. As you can see, on the pictures, Isabelle drank a lot (the colours on her cheeks are generally a good sign) and spoke a lot. The waiter even urged her to shut up so that he could bring us the starters in time (rude, wasn't it?).

Anyway, we had an excellent fresh fish soup and Richard tried the stuffed sardines even asked if they were filled with meat stuff. Only a British guy could come up with such weird ideas... So for your information, Richard, stuffed sardines are only made with mussels, crab meats sometimes, spinach, garlic and breadcrust. That's all!

Then we took a nice and long walk on "la Promenade des Anglais". It was very crowded cos the weather conditions were quite fantastic (a gentle breeze, a cloudless sky... and quite unusually warm around 22�C). Made me long for spring and summer times! Only a few more weeks ahead of us...

Back in the game of... LOVE

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — February 22, 2004 at 03:58PM

I have put a lot of things on hold for the past 6 months as far as outings, friends and activities are concerned. I don't know if I did it willingly or unconsciously but I gave attention/credit to things/people that weren't worthy. I feel bad about having neglected a lot of important aspects of my life. Laurent always tells me that I have a tendency to expect too much of people. I often put them on a pedestal and I want them to treat me with the same honesty and respect as I treat them cos that's the foundation of any reliable and good relationship/friendship, therefore I can only end up being disappointed cos there are lots of freaks or cowards out there and such people aren't worth fighting for or being saved.

Anyway, last week, after an amazing Valentine's day with Eka, I realised that it was about time to take control of my life. Eka and I spoke about travelling plans for this summer and one thing leading to another, the inescapable wedding question was being addressed (white gown, black tuxedo, our respective family get-together, the commitment in front of God in a nice chapel: well the whole picture...).

So, yes we are making plans about a bright future cos soon we will both turn 30, have known each other for almost 13 years and we have seen each other through a lot of bad and happy timings and the chemistry is still strong between us. So now the time has finally come to settle down and to take the big plunge. There is no need to sum up things nicely or to oversimplify things between people caring about each other cos Love should always be simple and true as a rule... It is a beautiful thing, nothing to be afraid of!

When Nostalgia Strikes Back...

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — February 1, 2004 at 06:40PM

It's full of nostalgia that I am writing this blog. I have spent the last few evenings trying to convert some of my good old Atari ST floppy disks to raw image files that I can read on an Atari emulator such as Steem.

In fact, I wanted to see, one more time, the demos I was working on last decade and guess what... Though most of my disks seem to be out of order, (full of dust with a mouldy surface) - I managed to convert the floppy disk that contains the biggest demo screens I was working on.

To make a long story short, I was a member of a group called 'The Conceptors' and my pseudo was Demon. The other 68000 assembly machin coder was Extra - the fuckin' best coder and hacker I have ever met. Hey! Extra, if you read this, please contact me... At that time, we were mainly creating demos. We also wrote the first demo builder ever made called IntroConcept. All of our stuffs were written in 68000 assembly machin code and the Atari ST was a wonderful computer for hackers. I also cracked a few games or put trainers on them but that's another story...

Anyway, even if most of you don't know what a demo is or have simply no idea how cool the demo scene was at that time, here are some screenshots of the screens I am the most proud of. The final words will be what I used to say in the scroller. Big kiss to Karine and let's wrap.

When my girlfriend turns into a geek...

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — January 3, 2004 at 12:57PM

Today there is only one day left before we both return to work. Those holidays were quite fun though the weather was not as good as it is used to being in December - cold, rainy and humid.

So, what did we do most during those rainy days? Well, Booba has been using her computer quite intensively to chat with some friends on #chemistry, browse the web to find new guitar tabs or idiomatic english expressions... She also has been practicing guitar a lot and you should see her calouses on her fingers - quite impressive.

What did I do? Well, most of the time, as we share our network connection, I played Warcraft III - Battle.NET. To be quite honest, I am more or less a newbie (as of today, I am level 6) but who cares? I like to try new strategies and losing a game is not so important to me... Anyway, I hope I'll be back at work stronger than ever...

OK, finally, we would like to wish a happy New Year to all of you we haven't seen or talked to yet. For the pictures, this time, here are Booba and her computer and the two of us exercising :)

Merry X-mas everyone!

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 22:13:23 +0000

X-mas Eve party back at my parents' was quite the entertainment. After a delightful meal generously washed down with some fine wines, my mum urged me to read through a mail she got from my Norwegian relatives.

Just for the record, it took me more than half an hour to make sense of it, cos I had to associate Norwegian words with English and German vocabulary. Patterns are just everything in life!

I cheated a little though. When I was still in the cold, I turned to my mum for a good help. I was pleased to learn that all those Viking folks were doing great, that my young cousin, Christian goes to high school on a sleigh and works in a slaughterhouse to earn some pocket money ("han kj�rer trial"; "han arbeider felleskj�pet in kj�tt" for those who will doubt my Norwegian skills!). That slaughterhouse definition was also something interesting to come across with cos my mum didn�t know of the right French word for it. All she could come up with was "well, you know, the place where a cow enters in one piece and gets chopped into ribs, sausages, p�t� and so forth". Vikings are very practical people...

But anyway, enough babbling, I have been humming a tune for the past 2 hours and I�d like to share it with those who might be in the X-mas holiday mood! It is a very cheesy song but very appropriate for the occasion.

I won't ask for much this Christmas, I won't even wish for snow
I'm just gonna keep on waiting underneath the mistletoe
I won't make a list and send it to the North Pole for Saint Nick
I won't even stay awake to hear those magic reindeer click
Cause I just want you here tonight, holding on to me so tight
What more can I do?
Baby all I want for Christmas, is YOU...

Pay-back time : Booba : 2, Eka : 0

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 23:12:18 +0100

I always rant about Eka taking me places where the forces of Nature always give me a hard time, so last Saturday it was my turn to get even at Eka. I took him on a very long walk down the Cap d'Antibes by the shores. The only thing I forgot to mention here is that, despite a cloudless sky and a beautiful sunshine, the wind was extremely strong, the waves were pretty rough (good weather conditions though for wind and sky surfers, that we did see along the way!).

I could hear Eka mumbling behind my back and whining that this walk was way too long (it lasted more than 2 hours), that he was soaked to the skin and that his foot hurt! Eka, what the hell do I care about your broken foot? *laughs* Had you not kicked into a huge dead trunk in the first place, just to get attention, you wouldn't feel so miserable right now!

By the time we finally got home, I was so sick and tired with Eka's whining that I decided to give him something more substantial to complain about. So I tackled him gently on his other "working" leg. Things got pretty rowdy and ended up into a gigantic but friendly pillow fight... For the record, Eka, next time you'll try to mess around with an angel, you should be more prepared cos you are not a good full contact player!

Too busy to lbog...

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — December 13, 2003 at 08:48PM

Today we had a nice walk to the lighthouse in Antibes called "Le Phare de La Garoupe". This lighthouse is 29m high. At an altitude of 103m, it's one of the most powerful lighthouse of the Mediterranean coast with a light intensity of 230.000 candelas (and you know what? Booba loves this unit :). Anyway, between the sea and the snow covered mountains, we had a lot of fun there. We also managed to get some really nice pictures. I tried to take my first panaroma view of Antibes but I haven't merged my 14 shots together yet. I will let you know how this works out...

Another part of this trip was dedicated to Booba's funny t-shirt. The message was pretty clear: I had to stay focused on the landscape, the sea, the mountains... and not on her natural curves (easier said than done, believe me Booba :).

Check the snow out !

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — December 9, 2003 at 08:12PM

Most people believe that because I live on the French Riviera, it is always sunny, warm and that palm trees are just everywhere. Well, I must admit that we are pretty lucky here with the weather cos winters are mild and life is just swell...

On my drive-way down to work this morning, I looked at the magnificent view of the Alps covered in snow and took a picture that turned out to be one of my all time best landscape pictures. Enjoy! Hopefully, we will be able to go downhill skiing this winter cos the snow is just out there calling for us.

When a storm passes us by...

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — Tue, 7 Dec 2003 18:27:41 +0100

After a tiring X-mas shopping trip (some gifts are still left up on that list though *laughs*), this Sunday morning, Eka and I strolled through the streets in Cannes and ended up near the shores where a huge storm was about to take place (gigantic waves, strong winds, dark clouds...). Usually such storms only happen here every once in a while, near equinoxes or solstices but again winter solstice is probably not as far off as I'd like to think...

Extreme weather conditions are rather rare down here. But again nothing can be ruled out cos we had that heat-wave and those floodings a couple of months ago. The climate is just wacked nowadays, I guess! Can someone also tell me how come Eka always takes me places where the Forces of Nature always give me a hard time? This time, they were really infuriating, I got soacked and almost undressed by heavy rain and winds! (Well, actually my skirt got blown up, so nothing to get over-excited about :P). Thank God, I had my Vancouver hat on to keep me warm both on the inside out and the oustside in!

Finally, here is a music quiz that inspires me through writing this blog today:

It's hot as hell, honey in this room
Sure hope the weather will break soon
The air is heavy, heavy as a truck
We need the rain to wash away our bad luck

You're in my mind all of the time
I know that's not enough
If the sky can crack there must be someway back
For love and only love.

Photography Update

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — Sun, 30 Nov 2003 20:00:58 +0100

We have added a few more pictures to our Photography section. You will find some photos from a trip I made with two friends of mine: alex and steph, to Los Angeles in October.

In addition, you will find a selection of pictures taken during my holidays - staring: Booba and her magic hats. Those pics are quite fun but unfortunately, they will only
give you a slight glimpse of how breath-taking and eye-catching Booba is :)

We also published some pictures from our "nice but wet" trip to London. Finally, as the subject of this post is 'Photography', here is one of the first picture I managed to take at nightfall.

Time to blog!

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — Sun, 30 Nov 2003 02:47:10 +0100

Few weeks ago, I spent several hours trying to figure out which weblog I was going to install on my web server. I needed a blog written in PHP 4.0 or greater (required by my provider), and I wanted it to be simple to install and to use. I took a look at most of the blog implementation on sourceforge and I was really disappointed to see that most of them just have no documentation. Others are just too "fat" and complicated to install and/or use. Finally, few of them just do not work at all!

So, this might sound like a typical programming snob: everything I do myself is better than the stuff other people write. - therefore I decided to learn PHP and implement my own blog mecanism: Blog24. I wanted it simple so I decided to be as pragmatic as possible. For instance...

Do I need a database? Of course not! If I enter one post per day, I will have to spend my entire life to write posts before a PHP code will slow down on today's computers! So I chose to rely on the filesystem.

Do I need an XML syntax for the posts and comments? Of course not! There is no polished built-in API for XML in PHP so let's just drop that feature that generally slows everything down. Just use plain text.

And so on and so forth... At the end, less than 24 hours later (that's why 24 in Blog24) I came up with my own blog implementation (the one that is currently used in our website BTW). I still have more or less 4 hours available before exceeding 24 to work on the documentation and the packaging so you can come back later if you want to download it.

And now, my girlfriend begs me to hit the sack, right now! So I will listen those sweet words and obey - as I should more often :)

Words to ease my mind

karine.candela@wanadoo.fr — Mon, 03 Nov 2003 20:28:17 +0100

Some people use their blogs for ranting and rambling down and even if they seem to be putting a lot of themselves out on the internet for everyone to see, sometimes they forget who sees what, and how little of them it really is. But a blog is also a place designed for people to freely discuss about important issues.

Being the genuine and open-minded girl that I am, I wrote a statement on sincerity and commitment ('we are meant for each other'). I am not afraid of my feelings. We all make mistakes at some point. The most important thing is to learn from them and to move on...

Treize's Trip in Antibes

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — Sun, 30 Nov 2003 19:14:43 +0100

I finally took some time to update our website. As Karine is chating on #chemistry all night long (thanks fejes, mioux, psilo and al. :), that was not too difficult in fact. Anyway, a few more pictures are available. Those ones were taken when Treize (a friend of ours) was visiting us two weeks ago.

It was a beautiful day, Don't let it get away...

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 19:30:38 +0100

Today, we had a really nice trip to what we call 'La Poisse' in the Cap d'Antibes. The day as well as the place were beautiful. As Steph used to call it, I was in a 'rafale' mode - that's to say, I took a new picture every 3 minutes. So, two hours and a half later, we ended up with almost 91 pictures! If you want to see some of them, and read the wonderful words from Booba, you can have look at the Endless Walks by the Cliffs in the Cap d'Antibes.

Welcome...

tkormann@wanadoo.fr — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 15:51:51 +0100

After more than 9 years of surfing the web, I have finally decided to get my own domain name. As you probably guess, all kormann.(com|org|net) were not available anymore. I even remember missing kormann.net few years ago. Anyway, I have decided to go for something shorter than kormann and start playing with the name...

Several attempts later, I was really surprised to see a 4 letters long domain name still available in 2003. Though we are not quite happy with the name, here it goes. kman.org will now host the various Karine and Thierry's adventures.

Finally, to make a long story short, Karine will be referred sometimes as Booba (her IRC nickname on #chemistry and #koala) and I (Thierry) am also known as Eka.