Somehow, editing the thesis is resulting a much more painful experience that writing the first drafts. A small sacrifice for a larger purpose.

Thinking about the next 5000 days

"""
We have to get better at believing in the impossible
"""
Kevin Kelly

Song of the day

Do I ?

Mobile phone on a bicycle

I actually can not tell if this is great or terrible.

Hey Hey You Girl

I also recommend this little piece, and this little disk.
Go Hrzfld, go !

Song of the day

Declared song of the day !

ps: it still unclear to me where in the world you are allowed to hear deezer or not. If you can not hear this song, please add a comment and I will post an alternative link.

Engineers...

"""
We build toys. Some of those toys change the world.
"""
Nassim Taleb

nofound

Warning: the link on the image is for mature audience only.

Next friday...

I got to try this one !

Success is...

"""
How many shining eyes do I have around me ?
"""
Benjamin Zander

Chris Jordan

"""
We have lost our sense of outrage.
"""
It has been a while (a few months) that I wanted to blog on the works of Chris Jordan. Finding this video is the best opportunity to do so.

Bellow there is the number of plastic beverage bottles used in USA every five minutes: two millions.

Take the time, take a look.

Google Street View in Paris

It is just a few streets, but still... so cool !


View Larger Map
More here.

L'Alphabet Désiré @ La Péniche El Alamein, Paris 2008

Purple on the outside, green on the top, musical in the inside...it is la Péniche El Alamein.
L'Alphabet Désiré at La Péniche El Alamein, Paris 2008.

You can hear some of the songs played here.

Diane Cluck @ Paris 2008

Well my so much announced (here, here and plenty of spam email)"once in a lifetime experience" was incredible ! Sorry for all you guys who missed it. Here is a glimpse of what is was... Of course vibes do not pass so well through the screen as they do through the skin.

Rodrigo @ Paris 2008

What is up ? What are you doing ? Where are you ? So many emails that I have left disrespectfully unanswered. I'm sorry for this mean way of keeping you all informed, but hey, this is what this blog is made for in the first place !
Some of you already know some or most parts of this story, but here comes the full version.

So everything started when I was born, a cold day in the middle of the Parisian winter... kidding... I will move forward until the end of 2004. I was finishing my studies in Chile, at the beautiful UTFSM (looks like a castle, over a hill just in front of the sea, also known as Sansania). My studies went great, I enjoyed my engineer thesis topic, I was coordinating the First UTFSM Robocup team, participating in a start up named WeInnovate, and thinking about what should I do next...

After near six months of introspection, investigation and long discussions. I finally decided that I wanted to start a PhD working at the IMARA team at the INRIA Rocquencourt (France, near Paris). My candidature went quite well and before I knew it I was accepted, funded and ready to start a new life. Most of my friends and family just saw a sudden departure, only a few weeks after my graduation, but for me it was the achievement of six years of studies.

The three years that followed were... interesting. I got to start living alone, I traveled a lot, rediscovered Paris, my (half broken) french identity, and I dedicated energy and passion to this new project: my PhD thesis.

(Some photos of some of my trips here and here)

During the last three years I got to meet and re-encounter people, learnt many new ideas, discovered new pleasures, evolved my understanding of life and the world. I got to reach a small spot in the barrier of human knowledge ("how to make cars move alone ?"). Overall I lived a very pleasant life with novelties, challenges, failures, success, happy moments, and a fair dose of carnal pleasures. I made plenty of mistakes too, in my professional and personal life, but I'm still here standing up.

That life was contractually bound to finish at beginning 2008. So by the end of 2007 I started writing my PhD thesis. Finishing my thesis and writing that 200 pages sucked up most of my vital energy, and that is about the time when I started "fading off".

The beginning 2008 was all but calm. Appart from actually writing that 200 pages, I got to travel to Berlin (January), Poland (February), Ljubljana (April), Namibia (May), and Chile (June). The last three trips were done "in one row" as a break off.

Namibia and Chile were exploratory trips. Namibia to encounter myself, a few friends and the real world. Chile to meet back with my family and some of my old friends. In Chile I spent long hours discussing with them life, love and the world, sharing they happiness and anguishes, relocating myself with respect to my significant others. I had a great time on all of this trips.
Last time I leaved Chile, I was starting a PhD for three years. This time I leaved Chile with friends, family, some silent tears behind me and a one way ticket in my hands.

Now, I'm back to Paris since a few weeks. I got the "green light" from my PhD director, and I have to send the new version of my thesis to the correctors in the next weeks. I still have to work on it, but overall "this is it". If everything goes as expected, I should be defending my thesis during September.

In the mean time I started working in a project between the laboratory and a car pieces manufacturer (moving from research land a step nearer to industry land), I also spend some time doing some web development for a side project, participating on a cycle for PhD students named "Discovering the Entrepreneurial France", working on my world domination plans, reading books and enjoying the great summer time at Paris.

For the first time in a while I know that I'm going to stay, here (at least until next year). I will put energy to fill the gaps I left after three years focusing on the PhD, finishing the mourning of my student life and trying to build an adult life.

Overall, 2008 feels a lot like 2004. I see behind me some of the best years of my life (until now...). I'm doing great, having plenty of projects and fun. I'm starting to think about "what is next ?", "what should I do ?", "what matters ?". Life will find its path, I will continue applying my so called "pathological optimism", putting energy to "change the world", and enjoying the fact that, after all, "I'm one of the luckiest men alive".

I hope your lives are going just as good as mine, and if not, that a turnaround will happen soon. If you are reading this from a distant location, I hope we will meet again soon. If you are reading this from a near location, then I hope we will meet even sooner ;p ! In the mean time, we will keep up using the marvels of Internet.

When dates are fixed I will post on this blog more details about my PhD defense.