Game 2 of the 2024-2025 LNB Betclic Elite Finals: 2-0 Win
Total domination against this Monaco team and we went as high as having a +30 point gap.
TJ Shorts proving once again why he’s the best player on the continent and the whole team played its part! Incredible game, incredible atmosphere, and now one win away from our very first League Championship.
First game of the Finals — a best of five series
It’s our second appearance at the finals ever — second in two years. We lost to Monaco 3-1 last year, but we are stronger while Monaco is having some issues with a star player who’s not gonna play again this season and another solid one who’s injured.
Today’s victory puts us up 1-0, so two more wins, needed to win the whole damn thing!
The team was serious from beginning to end, so that was really great.
The event was huge, with 165,000 attendees over four days, making it the biggest conference I’ve ever been to.
AI was obviously the star of the show, popping up everywhere and driving discussions on its ethical implications and practical applications. It was interesting to see how governments (national and regional) and companies are leveraging AI to innovate in their core businesses.
I attended 2 really cool keynotes :
Peng Xiao’s talk on “Life in the Age of AI” delved into the philosophical and ethical aspects of our AI-driven world.
The panel on “The Future of Space” was equally inspiring, with insights from NASA, CNES, and other industry leaders.
Overall, a great opportunity to see how the industry is evolving. It was a solid experience, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.
(In a best-of-5 series - meaning the first team to 3 wins goes through.)
Another solid win: started with a 7-0 run, then tied and went as far as being 10 points behind in the first half. Very poor refereeing in Q2, seemed that refs were losing the plot.
Back to business in Q3, and we really went ahead in Q4.
Since visiting the Monocle café last weekend, I’ve been re-inspired by the space, but also the magazine, its radio, and its editorial pieces. I’m seriously considering subscribing again.
Really excited by this new “Top Class” Euroleague series of Panini trading cards!
First time that we get this in Europe, and the quality is superb: great card thickness (I’m used to less from Topps), the images are very high quality, and the holographs and graphic details look stunning!
I’ve been a fan for more than a decade now — his past 4-5 albums have been frequently on rotation at home over the years, and I’m fascinated by the creative freedom and artistry he seems to shape for himself.
After a first act dedicated to Chromakopia, he walked over a bridge to reach the small center stage, set like a living room (with a sofa, a desk, a turntable, and a crate of vinyl records.) He browsed through the crate containing his previous albums and other Easter eggs and influences and would then pick his albums and put them onto the turntable to play the hits.
Such a cool yet simple concept hit it was executed beautifully!
Recently created 2 AI Agents to help me in my job — a great exercise for me, considering I’m in a customer-facing role and non-technical position.
One agent helps me be better in my role/department.
One agent is focused on the industry I’m working in
Basically, one focuses on our vertical, and one is more horizontal, by contrast. Doing so is a real timesaver, while not breaching any confidentiality or confidential information. Really powerful stuff that is already paying dividens and making me better at my job…
A graphic novel by the French “DoggyBags” collective that I recently borrowed from my local library. Quite prescient and reminds me of the movie “Civil War” that was released last year… Brutal and would definitely be Rated R if this was released as a movie in the US.
Some really interesting developments for European Basketball:
NBA Europe
The NBA officially announced that they’re looking at creating a league in Europe — which has been rumored for 30 years, with a big increase of rumors these past few months.
There’s a lot that’s still up in the air between FIBA vs Euroleague, and the NBA announcing this in partnership with FIBA. But the future of European Basketball is definitely going ti be defined by this, whether it works or not.
Personally I welcome the NBA —provided that they take into consideration the specificities, culture, history and tradition that we have here on the Old Continent.
One thing that worries me though is that they seem to be interested in talking to established football ⚽️ teams instead of trying to find a way to work with established Basketball Clubs. For example: the rumor is that they’d better work with, PSG (Paris St Germain) than my existing Paris Basketball team.
Which leads me to my second point:
Paris Basketball (my hometown team)
Paris Basketball is already assured of staying in the Euroleague next year.
…which is both a sign that:
our team did great this year,
but also a cause of the interest of the NBA for the French market
AND the fact that there is great passion for basketball here in France, (and I believe we’re the 2nd biggest provider of non-American players in the NBA, after Canada.)
I guess I’m keeping my season ticket for years to come 🎫 🏀
A Fantasy Baseball update:
My draft was on Sunday, mid-afternoon, so I had to draft using the Yahoo Mobile App, while being out and about, hanging out with friends.
It was a nice and refreshing view compared to team-specific documentaries I’ve seen in the football (⚽️) world, and I really enjoyed the variety of discovering different teams, personalities, and players!
For someone like me, based in Europe, it was super useful to learn more about this league and its personalities. I wish more teams were covered, but I’m assuming that this would be the case if the show was to get renewed for another few seasons… MLS has definitely had the perception of being the “soon-to-be in the Top 5 of football leagues in the world” for 15 years now and we’re still waiting to see it happen, but at least the marketing has been good and the level of play has increased significantly. Though there’s still a lot of work to be done at youth level for the sport to become as mainstream and universal as it is in the rest of the world.
Next up on my watchlist:
Drive to Survive (Season 7), before the start of the new Formula 1 season, this weekend.
Well… @ACMomento doesn’t yet support the basketball “Coupe de France” but last night was a nice and simple victory against JDA Dijon in the Quarter Finals round.
Yesterday’s game marked the anniversary of moving from the old Halle Carpentier on the southernmost part of town, to the shiny new Adidas Arena located in the northernmost point at Porte de la Chappelle.
Hard to believe everything that has happened so far in just over one year:
2023-2024 Leaders Cup champions
2023-2024 EuroCup champions
2023-2024 Betclic Elite runner-ups
…and this year we’re still in the running for all 4 main competitions:
📚 I met my friend @JamesMayes.bsky.social about a dozen years ago at a local chapter of TEDx in Brighton, where I used to reside during my university studies and the early stages of my career.
We quickly connected due to our shared heavy social media usage and mutual attraction towards good food & drinks, good people, and a passion for technology. Since then, we’ve been friends, and I’m grateful to have him as both a friend and a mentor in my professional life.
Over the past year, James has been battling brain cancer. On top of this life-altering diagnosis, he’s been incredibly busy. Since last year, he’s been involved in the following endeavors:
Needless to say, for community-oriented individuals like myself, this book is already a must-read. I was fortunate enough to read early chapters a while back and eagerly anticipate delving deeper into the book.
For national, world, and general interest news, Apple News is really good. (…) it’s truly excellent. And a News+ subscription gets you access to a bunch of great publications with paywalls on the web.
My wife and I are on the bundled package which includes Fitness+, News+, TV+, and a bunch of iCloud storage and we haven’t looked back.
I don’t use Apple News+ as much as I’d like purely because I also have RSS/social + occasionally open the NYTimes app or The Athletic.
I’d love it if France-based publishers would play ball too — and if there was additional support for foreign-language publishers.
But overall it’s a great way to catch up on the news. Including Audio articles, Magazines, and Sports News — that’s a really good curated tab of different news specifically tailored to teams that I follow!
Another post inspired by @Manton, as I continue to read my way through my subscribed feeds:
I’m Tibz on most socials, @tibz.blog on Bluesky, and @tibz@micro.blog on Mastodon / @iTibz on Threads.
These are all managed by Micro.blog. “Are you getting it? These are not three separate accounts… This is one place to post. And we’re calling it a blog.” 🤪
I’ve been loving the idea of Micro.Blog since its inception, but over the past few years, it’s really become a super interesting, powerful, and simple way for me to manage my personal online presence!
Getting ready to say goodbye to Foursquare, an app I’ve used almost daily since its earlier form back in 2009 between my time studying and working and living in the UK, then in San Francisco, Paris, and my native French Riviera. Back then I used to check-in to places I visited from the mobile browser of my Nokia blackberry knockoff (E63) (2009-2011), then an Android phone (2011-2013), and finally from the dedicated iPhone apps (2013+). During that time the Foursquare app (and later Swarm) has almost always been on my phone’s Home Screen.
I’m feeling genuinely sad about this, truly the end of an era for a formative time in my life, the late 2000’s-early 2010s “SoLoMo” (Social Local Mobile) apps.
4SQ has been invaluable, not just for memorizing/logging/remembering places I’ve been to, but also to discover new places.
I traveled the world by myself for most of 2017, but Foursquare was my guide to discover new favorites while visiting cities all around Asia or America for the very first time. The amount of time I’ve spent on this app is immeasurable and I have a hard time wondering how I’ll get by the next time I explore a new city in the world.
As I start looking at substitutes, it seems that Superlocal could be an option. Otherwise North.Industries which I need to look into. But I need to do a lot more research!
As a sports fan following different teams/leagues/sports, keeping track of “what game is on today?” or “I have some free time on Sunday, is there anything good on?” has been a STRUGGLE these past few years.
Usually, there are existing apps you can use, mostly for ⚽️. Or Sports Media apps (like L’Equipe here in France, or The Athletic, or ESPN) etc.
But these aren’t great for the purpose of knowing
- What is on?- and When?
“When is there an exciting game around which I can plan to meet my friends, at home or in a bar?"
“How can I schedule my weekend in a way that I get to watch my team(s) while being mindful of family time and running errands?"
These are problems I’m continually experiencing.
To counter this, I’ve been using different websites that publish an RSS feed that you can subscribe to in a calendar app.
But as a self-described sports junkie, I ended up polluting my calendar with games, which made viewing my actual events pretty difficult.
The Solution
Fast-forward to October last year, when I discovered a service called Fixtured.
I can’t quite remember how it got put on to my radar, but Fixtured has totally changed this for me, and now I have one single place where I can see at a glance what’s coming up.
Today, it’s essentially a web-based calendar app, where you can choose which teams & leagues you follow across many different sports. It’s super easy to use in a “set it up once” type of way. I really like the design, and for someone like me, it is the PERFECT tool and usecase.
On top of that, the team behind Fixtured has been super responsive, keen to hear my feedback, and fast to implement new features/leagues/teams. They’re quite small (3 people) and works fast. In the past, they reached out by email and later via DMs to let me know about upcoming things. It’s been really cool to discover more about their work!
And I started sharing it with my friends in similar situations — my good friend Jeffry sent me this message today:
“Fixtured has already changed my life. Thank you forever”
I’m just a fan of what they’re building and want them to succeed. So for any sports fan like me, check out Fixtured! 👋🎤
My all-time favorite artist (John Mayer) playing his very first concert in Paris. It was my second time seeing John after attending the Paradise Valley tour back in 2013
It was really cool to see him take the stage by himself for 2 hours! John played mostly acoustic, but it was an opportunity to hear songs from every single album he put out (with the additions of In Your Atmosphere and his iconic Free Fallin' cover!
If you’re fortunate to live long enough, eventually you get The Call. Sometimes it’s an actual call, sometimes a social media post or a conversation on the street. But the message is the same: A friend of your youth has died.
The death of Matthew Perry was sad for all the reasons it is sad when a gifted, nimble, charming performer who has shared his struggles dies too young. But it was deepened by the particular relationship of “Friends” to its audience. If you connected with the show the way the show wanted to connect with you, the weekend’s news was a global version of The Call.
👋🏼 It’s been a few months since I’ve gotten back to freelancing and I wanted to share that I have some availability between now and the end of the year.
💼 I’m looking for additional work in Customer Success / Product Marketing starting at the end of August.
🙋🏻♂️I’m flexible but typically specialize in early stage startups and small companies looking for a Jack-of-all-trade profile, across a wide range of industries.
You can learn more about my work via my portfolio website (http://Tibz.work/) and my DMs are opened for more discussions.
I’m not a fan of modern fandom. This isn’t only because I’ve been swarmed on Twitter by angry devotees of Marvel and DC and (more recently) “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It’s more that the behavior of these social media hordes represents an anti-democratic, anti-intellectual mind-set that is harmful to the cause of art and antithetical to the spirit of movies. Fan culture is rooted in conformity, obedience, group identity and mob behavior, and its rise mirrors and models the spread of intolerant, authoritarian, aggressive tendencies in our politics and our communal life.
Day 11 of the March Photoblogging Challenge: “gimrack”.
I had to look up what it means, and it turns out it’s similar to knickknack.
My favorite one is this framed letter that Shana wrote after our first date, when I got home and she was traveling for work. Our first date was in London on Feb. 14th 2017, and our second date was a month later in Amsterdam for an extended weekend together.
Next to it stands a Polaroid photo of us on Times Square taken by local friends of ours, in November 2017 as we wrapped our world tour together.
📣 💼 I’ve been thinking of how best to apply my skills and help companies grow. I can add a lot of value to a team focused on business & product but that hasn’t had the chance to think about how to support customers and how to onboard new users.
My sweet spot is early-stage startups and companies that need to set up and launch their customer experience: setting up their support strategy, help desk, help center, segmenting the customer base and understanding how to educate users in the best practices, how to use features, how to make sure they make the most out of a given product, all the way to community building. Basically anything customer-facing.
All of this to say I’m thinking about going back to freelancing but I need clients…
I’ve been working full remote since 2015, have experience working with international, cross-disciplinary teams in the US, Europe, UK, whether B2B SaaS, B2C, sports, crypto, fintech, Dev tools, consumer, I’ve done a lot…
🏈🏀⚽️⚾️🏉📆
