Vlog 030: What's in my Bag?
In which I share the things I’m gonna pack for the next 9 months on the road!
Facebook’s apps are adapting to Stories, because it’d rather be called a copy-cat than a has-been.
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Vlog 029: I'll be gone for 9 months...
The Times, on the French Presidential Debate
The debate also included the three other main contenders — the Socialist Benoît Hamon, the Republicans’ François Fillon, and the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon — but it was the fight between Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen that riveted attention.
Here are my initial reactions from this debate…
The Candidates:
- Marine Le Pen (Far Right | Front National) — criticizing every single topic of discussion, without providing a single solution. Attacked on all sides, because her ideas are incoherent in any way, shape, or form — and because all she tried to do was trying to make viewers/supporters angry or scared — the usual racist/populist far-right tactics.
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Far Left | La France Insoumise) — Master Troll of the night, he made a lot of people laugh/smile (myself included) with the way he spoke, similarly to how Trump was seen as fun to listen to during the first G.O.P. debate. However, his program and knowledge of Foreign Affairs and Economy is severely limited.
- Benoit Hamon (Left of the Left | Parti Socialiste) — Fairly discreet all night, mostly pushed his Universal Basic Income ideas —which I personally think is way too ahead of its time, right now. He was in a position where he attempted to sway potential voters who'd normally look at Mélenchon or Macron. Also went on a rant against Macron in the evening —which came seemingly out of nowhere and didn't move the debate forward in any way.
- François Fillon (Conservative Right | Les Républicains) — hard to state how discreet he was last night, almost avoiding the spotlight. It used to be his strategy ahead of the debates inside his own party, however this time, it felt more like him avoiding topics altogether, considering the different scandals he's involved in. In my eyes, the only program that makes sense is his conservative economic program, and even then, it remains symptomatic of this generation of people looking to the past for inspiration, rather than focusing on the future. Our modern times are completely different than the second half of the twentieth century, and I personally believe that the way we make the economy, society, and foreign affairs work needs re-thinking.
- Emmanuel Macron (Liberal Centrist | En Marche) - I'm not the best judge, simply because I'm partially biased. Last night, Macron got attacked on all sides, by all candidates. When they did, he most often took it with a dash of humor, responding with "If you'll allow me, I'd like to respond — I believe this is directly targeted at me/my program." Last night was a big test for him, his first big presidential debate in the spotlight, facing other candidates. By that standard, he stayed strong, however I noticed the media, both French and Foreign feeling like he could have done a better job or could have been more aggressive and sent Le Pen packing. In my eyes, Macron is the only candidate who blends:
- a pragmatic program on all fronts (economy, foreign affairs, security, health, education, entrepreneurship, etc.),
- a strong focus on Europe,
- forward-looking ideas,
- a desire to leave partisan-issues and mix good ideas, regardless of where they came from.
Other things to note:
- I'm kind of bummed that they didn't have time to talk about other subjects such as entrepreneurship, technology, and more importantly France's place within Europe. However, running at 200 minutes (3 1/2 hours long), this was already a very long and draining debate, for candidates as well as us, poor citizens behind our television sets.
- Overall, this was just as I expected — a good way to display each candidate's program, values, ideas or tactics while attempting to contrast or attack their opponents' ideas.
- It'll be interesting to see how the polls, public opinion, and the first round of voting on April 23rd go.
Hungry and Looking for Work
Hey friends, work is drying up after a few hectic weeks & months.
At this point, I have between 30-45 days to figure out a better solution to find something new to work on. I still have a couple of smaller ongoing missions, but I need something better.
Two avenues...
The way I see it, I have two choices ahead of me:
- I can look for another mission, some more client work.
- Or, I can try and cook up my own thing. Whatever that thing may be.
Client Work
This is more in line with what I already do. The idea is to look for another mission, first through word of mouth, in my network of friends and acquaintances, and professional connection.
If this doesn’t work, then I can have a look at platforms like Doz, Cloudpeeps, Remote, Hopwork.
Ideally, I’d prefer working with people that I can already reach, around me — it’s easier, pays better, and beyond that, I prefer working with people that I know, where there’s already a built-in level of trust.
When it comes to client work, my reputation is at play, and thus, it becomes easier to convince someone to work with me if we already have contacts in common who can vouch for them, or for me.
Online Course/Coaching/Mentoring
This is slightly different than focusing on a client project, but setting up an online course has been on my mind for a long time.
Since I started working, over 6 years ago, I’ve come to realise that I love educating people about how to make the most out of certain tools, or how to get started with a new project.
It took me a while to realise that I now have enough expertise to pass it on to others.Ideally, I’d like to focus on a niche that I feel:
- …is underserved.
- …I am legitimate enough to try and help.
There’s just a ton of work associated with this, and as with all projects, starting it is one thing, but launching is another beast entirely. One that requires a lot of work and polish. But the idea of having this slowly-growing passive income on the side, is enticing.
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Looking for some new work…[/caption]
Decisions, Decisions...
So yeah, that’s where I’m at for now. I still have more things to think about, and a trip to Amsterdam this weekend. But the bottom line is that I’d love your input — what do you think I should focus on?
Final Questions
So, to wrap this up, I’d like to leave you with two questions:
In this case :
- what topic do you feel I have expertise on?
- what is the value and what are the strengths that you feel I could bring, in offering an online course?Thanks for your help you guys!
Amsterdam Weekend Getaway
Currently listening to: Drake’s freshly released "More Life" album/playlist/project.
I’m waiting at the airport, on my way home after spending the weekend with S.
I always have a great time in this city, but the real reason behind the trip was to see her again, and be able to spend some quality time together. In all honesty, we were just looking for a good place to meet, in Europe, and The Netherlands happened to be a cheap and direct flight for both of us.
She had been in Amsterdam once before when she was a child, with her family. As for me, I spent a week in the Netherlands last year but only two short days in the city. The rest had been spent outside and visiting other places.
Looking back, we were been lucky enough to find some rays of sunshine during a weekend when the forecast promised fairly constant rain.
Day One: Traveling outside of time and space
The weekend started with the first flight of the day at 6:30am for me. I landed at Schipol airport at 8:30am and met with S a couple of minutes after that.
Seeing her, holding her, and kissing her felt unreal at first, after spending a month away from one another. But the good habits came back quickly and naturally: talking, holding hands, and giving one another a relaxed look full of excitement, love, desire, and happiness.
With such an early arrival, and small bags, we decided to make the most of the day and started walking around the city, delaying our hotel check-in for later that afternoon.
We started with a coffee in Bocca, a coffeehouse recommended by some of my local friends. We both needed that extra caffeine.
From there, we went to the flower market, on the canals, and then walked to Museumplein, the park and museums district. Around this green space stand 4 museums, amongst which the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Museum of Design & Modern Art and Moco, a mansion-turned-Museum where they were having two artists in display – more on that later.
Museumplein is also the area where stands one of the few “I am sterdam” signs – there are a few of those located at different landmarks across the city. Walking by the sign was also a great opportunity to take a couple of pictures together.
We continued our walk along the canals and charming old buildings, heading North. As we reached midday, we stopped at Fou Fow Ramen, a Sino-Japanese modern ramen bar. The hot broth and warm food were exactly what we needed to recharge our batteries and power through the rest of the day.
As an early afternoon food coma hit us, we decided to head to the hotel to drop our bags and take a quick nap, before heading back out later in the evening.
For this trip, we were staying in the very comfortable Qbic hotel. Yes, for those paying attention, it’s the same hotel as the one I was in, during the London trip. The hotel is located just outside of the city, about 15mn away from the center on a quick tramway ride.
We got back to the city around 6pm and went searching for yet another cappuccino. Then came the time to introduce S to another Dutch specialty: homemade fries with satay/peanut-sauce.
We shared a small cone ahead of dinner and went on the lookout for a nightly canal ride under the rain. A ticket with Blue Boat Company gets you a 90 minute tour as well as snacks and a drink. With the city lights along the canals, needless to say that it was as scenic and romantic as one would have hoped.
After the tour, we looked for dinner and ended up at Lotti’s, the restaurant inside of The Hoxton, one of Amsterdam’s coolest hotels. She went for a mushroom soup while I lost my mind over a plate of delicious pumpkin raviolis. There was a great and hip atmosphere at Lotti’s. Keeping in mind that it was St Patrick’s day, the restaurant/bar was filled with a mix of tourists and locally-based hip creatives coming from the office. A great blend over a great DJ-set: I can only recommend this place for the food, drinks, and local ambiance.
Coming out of dinner, it was time to go and pay a visit to Amsterdam’s infamous Red Lights District.
The funny thing about this is that photos are absolutely forbidden, which means that walking in these streets in the evening is something to experience, not something that one can picture, explain, or show to people unfamiliar with it. As such, S found herself amused and confused by the situation both at once. She wasn’t sure what to expect, which is probably the best way to see the nightworkers in their element.
Once we finished our visit, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it an early night.
Day Two: More Life
We left the hotel around 11am in the morning after a good night of sleep. We got a quick breakfast at Caffè Belmondo, nearby, just before hoping on the tram.
The program for the day was to visit museums before lunch and improvise after that. We decided to start with the Van Gogh Museum, and followed it with the smaller Moco Museum.
The first one is fairly self explanatory: a huge building exhibiting the best work from one of the most famous and influential artists of the 19th century, on about 4 or 5 different levels.
Moco, on the other hand, had two temporary exhibitions, one on the surreal Salvador Dali, and the other one on Banksy. As fans of streetart, we just had to get our tickets, if only for the Banksy one.
After educating ourselves a bit more about the Arts, we went searching for food. S was in the mood for a burger so we naturally thought about hitting the Hard Rock Café nearby. However, with a 45mn wait at 2:30pm, we decided to go elsewhere. That’s when we stumbled upon Palladium.
Palladium is predominantly a bar that serves food. However:
- They also serve one of the best cappuccinos in town.
- The food is actually amazing.
We were happily surprised by the atmosphere, the food, and our giant Gin and Tonics. S had a refreshing cucumber G&T, while I chose a cinnamon & orange one.
Leaving the restaurant, I wanted to show S one of my favorite places in town, that I knew she’d like, The American Book Center: a four-stories-high building with magazines, stationary, and books on books on books, all in English, and offering a variety of subjects.
One can find anything from Arts, fashion and design books, travel guides, comics or poetry collections. They also have a concept I love: “Blind Dates”: books all wrapped up in paper, without a title or author, just a 10 words description to get you to buy and be surprised by the reading material.
Once we were down browsing, it was time for more alcohol, so we naturally went to BeerTemple, an American Beer Bar sporting close to 20 beers in tap and about three times the same amount of bottles of imported brews from all around the world. As both fans of India Pale Ales, we were delighted to discover new drinks to try.
From BeerTemple, I took the initiative to take_S_ to another lesser-known landmark of the city: the public library. Located on the edge of the river, just after the main train station, the building has 7 floors with a restaurant and a terrace overlooking the city, a great place to just take a breather away from the packed center of the Dutch capital.
Unfortunately the terrace is closed until the beginning of April and we couldn’t get out. However, the final stop of the day would take us to an even more scenic panoramic view.
Right next to the Library is the Doubletree Hilton hotel, and more importantly, its Sky Lounge rooftop bar. We arrived around 7:30pm to find the place packed and it took us a couple of minutes to find a table.
Once we got there, S ordered a champagne-based cocktail called Seduction, while I chose something vermouth-based. The drinks came alongside chili-flavored popcorn, a very interesting mix. We decided to also grab a bite while enjoying this very romantic and intimate moment. We shared a plate of cheese and a pumpkin risotto, before finishing with a sweet treat consisting of a Stracciatella, Hazelnut and Cookies’n’Cream ice cream from a local Dutch store.
We took an Uber out of sheer laziness to walk and then wait for yet another tramway, and called it a night.
Day Three: Flying back to reality
After a restful night of sleep, we woke up in the room, had a shower, packed, and decided to get breakfast at the hotel before leaving. The convenience of having a delicious breakfast at the hotel, a 10mn train ride from the airport, was too good to pass on.
We arrived at the airport just before 10am and I left S at the international terminal. Her flight was a couple of hours before mine, but considering her long-er trip, it was worth me coming with her, leaving her at the check-in gate, before finding my own terminal and security stand.
Once at the airport, I had my third and fourth coffees of the day, a quick lunch, and some time by my boarding gate, to relax, catch up on some articles saved in my Instapaper, read some comics, and send a few messages with my friends. I also messaged S and we exchanged some of the pictures we took over the weekend.
Realizing our growing feelings and affection towards one another, taking our tickets to meet in Amsterdam was the best decision we could have possibly taken. All weekend long, being with her has been an intimate and timeless experience, where it felt like we were the only two humans around at times.
I mentioned previously that S travels a lot for work, and should continue to be in this situation until at least later this fall. However, with my upcoming trip starting in April, this may turn out making seeing each other again even easier.
At this point in time, there are talks of meeting again on other continents in another couple of weeks, for more adventures together, and the only obstacle to those upcoming adventures would be related to her superiors preventing her to have this time off. Not a big deal, in and out of itself.
I don’t know why my future is made of, but right now, all I know is that she’s in it.
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Today, I’ve received my Passport back with my Chinese Visa approved!
Making progress on preparing this trip every single day and I’m leaving in 21 days at the time of writing/publishing!
My Brother's Graduation
This week-end, I was in Lyon to celebrate my little brother’s graduation. We’re here with the family and actually went to a wonderful Michelin-star restaurant, which was booked last minute, with views overlooking the city.
And it literally turned out to be the best restaurant I’ve ever been too and best meal I’ve ever had. And did I mention this was my vegetarian set menu?!
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If you haven’t been to Lyon, I can only recommend it — it brings some of this French charm, blends it with great cuisine, cityscapes, and a much friendlier local population than Paris.
On our end, we took the time to re-visit the scenic streets & architecture of this beautiful city. We even went to a great little Cinema Museum dedicated to movie sets, props, miniatures, and special effects —right in the center of the old town. I highly recommend this place if that’s the type of thing that interests you!
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I’ve got 4 weekends left before leaving on my Big Trip™. I’m going to spend all of them away from home, interestingly enough —
- The first one being this current weekend in Lyon.
- I’ll be in Amsterdam next weekend.
- Then, I should be in Switzerland for work.
- Finally, I’ll away for a weekend at the end of March/beginning of April.
And I’m leaving on April 6th.
So excited!
“Be more careful on Facebook”
Something I’ve been saying to a few close friends and family members: given the current American Government, I’m going to avoid traveling to the US because I feel that I’m just vocal enough to be rejected at the border.
Here’s the short version of what I’m about to say:Immigrants and visitors to the US—along with anyone participating in protests or visible resistance to the current administration—are the targets of intrusive governmental surveillance, including surveillance of their social networks. Both immigrants and political dissidents are being vilified by the administration and targeted for draconian and unconstitutional attacks. If your “friends”—or friends of friends—network includes people vulnerable to these attacks, you should assume that your constitutionally protected political speech may be used in bad faith to characterize your contacts as terrorists or criminals, and act accordingly.
Note: If this seems obvious to you, perhaps because you’ve already experienced some flavor of it, know that I wrote this post for your friends and family members and colleagues who haven’t thought about it yet.
(Emphasis mine)
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"It’s Not The Foreigners Who Are Plotting Here"
White America…
Since January 2015, the FBI has also arrested more anti-immigrant American citizens plotting violent attacks on Muslims within the U.S. than it has refugees, or former refugees, from any banned country.
Privacy as a Feature
Consumer Reports will now include privacy as an important factor into how they rate new products. A great news in these troubled times.
Simple and to the point:
When consumers vote with their wallets and their clicks, we’ve seen that companies pay attention. We think companies will strive to out-do their competitors when it comes to privacy, security, and other consumer rights. The ones that do a better job will gain more customers.
Vlog 028: A Weekend in Turin, Italy
A weekend in Italy with my best friend Elodie!
alt-J — "3WW"
alt-J is back! Announcing an album ("Relaxer") and a tour yesterday, they also took the time to release the first single, entitled “3WW” (three worn words).
"I just want to love you in my own language"
[Tibz Mix] Amazing Chill | Volume 03: London
A mix inspired by my recent trip to London. Some of those tracks are from British artists, some others were on repeat during my trip, and relate to the people I’ve met and shared good times with! #GoodVibesOnly
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Vlog 027: London (Part 02)
Summing up a full week in London. Part 02 includes a day trip to Brighton, Brunch, going on Dates, going to the cinema, and more!
Missed Part One? Watch it here.
Vlog 026: London (Part 01)
Summing up a full week in London. Part 01 includes food, friends, Shoreditch, street art adventures, and a concert in Camden!
Looking for Part Two? Watch it here!
Summing up February 2017
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A Weekend in Turin, Italy
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"To fight climate change, institute three-day weekends"
A reduction in working hours generally correlates with marked reductions in energy consumption [...] In fact, if Americans simply followed European levels of working hours, for example, they would see an estimated 20% reduction in energy use—and hence in carbon emissions.
Make Capitalism & Productivity Great Again
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Amsterdam
Tickets booked to Amsterdam next month with S.
That means that I’ll have managed to take a trip each month of the year in 2017, assuming all continues to go according plan.
- January: The end of the Vietnam Winter Trip
- February: London, UK (plus a weekend in Italy with my best friend Elodie in just 4 days.)
- March: Amsterdam, NL
- April: D.
- May: S.
- June: K.
- July: A. (tbd)
- August: A. (tbd)
- September: N.
- October: S/M/I.
- November: J.
- December: J.