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The evening before the exam. Possibly slightly apprehensive of what awaits me tomorrow morning. I’m not quite sure at what level the exam will be (written Chinese). I do believe it should work out just fine, but you never know, do you? It’s a healthy sort of apprehension, the one that motivates people to do their best. The sun was really pulling me away from my desk today, so instead of going crazy forcing myself to stay put I just went with it and ended up studying and juggling in the ‘Citadelpark’, after enjoying a lovely stroll with some cheerful beats in my aldiPod earphones. I possibly could’ve been more productive, altough I believe that sort of expression really doesn’t carry any meaning. After all, I was as productive today as I’ve been today, those are the facts, and today won’t come around again so no chance of changing those facts. Anyway, we’ll see what tomorrow brings, it’s getting too late to try and stuff some more knowledge between my ears. I’m gonna relax a bit and try to get a good night’s sleep.

In fact I just downloaded the 3D animation short film Elephants dream. The special thing with this film is that it is entirely made by the principles of Open Source. For those of you not in the know, Open source is a term used for software that is developed by a community of volunteers and that is freely available to use, modify or expand. If you find a way to improve a program, you can, because the program source code from which the actual program is produced, is freely available. This is a big difference with most proprietary software. If you submit your improvement to the authors, they can include it in the next release. Some famous examples of Open Source Software include Linux and the many programs that come with current Linux distributions such as the OpenOffice.org office suite. You might also have come across the immensely popular Firefox webbrowser.

This film is made with the Open Source 3D modelling program Blender, and is sponsored by the Blender foundation. It is freely available in High Definition format from their website, including all the Blender data files used to make it. Feel like making a remake? Be their guest! More information can be found on their website.

So I’m going to enjoy that one and then see if I can get some sleep, altough I don’t feel particularly sleepy with this weather and the aforementioned apprehension. Tomorrow evening two friends of mine both throw a party for their birthday, I’m not sure which one to attend… Possibly I’ll just stay in Ghent, as my next exam will require some die-hard studying.

Well that’s it for now. Since you’ve read all of this I hope you enjoyed it. I did. Feel free to let me know in the comments. Farewell, sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Technorati Tags: Mandarin, Studying, Open Source, Blender, 3D, Elephants Dream, Exams