Back on the grind.

It's been an absolutely hectic month on many, many levels. I'm still recovering for 2 weeks in Barcelona organizing my first poker boot camp. I slept for 4/5 hours a night for about 10 days straight. So much happened. Overall it was a very positive experience, one that will be renewed in July/August. Don't have time to write much today, but I just wanted to say I'm back in Paris till at least the 15th of June and will probably be grinding online poker 6 hours a day this month for income. Peace.

sunday morning, blast from the past

For some reason I went digging around in my gmail box for old photos, and came across this one. Souvenirs, souvenirs... Lyon 2006. The girl on my right is a ukrainian chick called Masha, the bff of the girl I was dating in Kiev (mademoiselle Katya C). It was strange and stimulating time in my life. To please my hippy girlfriend (the #1 Beatles fan in the UA) I vowed never to shave or cut my hair during our time together. Looking at the photos, I should probably be glad the experiment only lasted 3 months (but I wonder how different my life would be today if I had gone through with the inital plan of moving to Kiev? I'd probably be a hairy nudist in Crimea , or maybe an alcolohic chess hustler in Shevchenko Park. Maybe I'd have a kid I could dress up in John Lennon glasses and make a viral youtube video of. I'd at least be able to talk dirty in Russian, sigh...).

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Random link :

TED talk on positive psychology

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Thank God I have friends who take pictures, I'm 25% Japanese, the gene should be there somewhere, but I've probably taken about 20 photos for every camera I've acquired in the last 10 years.

This is a shot from the GQ bar in Vientiane, Laos, where you might find me in July :

Time for a mango breakfast

Muscat experiment

It's 23:30 and the day has been fairly unexciting on the whole. I got up early, dealt with a number of annoying administrative issues, took one of my signature fake power naps (you set your alarm clock for 20 minutes, and hit the snooze button for 2 hours) , managed to drag myself to the gym to attempt to sweat the guilt away (ran for about 20 minutes, showered for 10. not the most intense workout). I should go to bed, and go for a more active day tomorrow, but instead I'm going to experiment with some Bukowski style blogging : late at night, with alcohol flowing through my veins. I read his novel "Women" during my 10 day stay in Barcelona; I'm not sure I want to emulate his lifestyle in the finest detail (although he did seem to get laid a lot for someone who was neither young nor fair looking, and often drunk and miserable) but I'm willing to try out this wine/writing combo, even if it means getting up late tomorrow with a hangover and deleting whatever it is I'll spout out in the next 20/30 minutes or more.

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A few life udpates :

I'm currently back in Paris, teaching chess (zzzzz...), appreciating its spring beauty for once, knowing I will be gone soon...

The poker camps are (finally!) going to happen, may 23rd to may 26th in Barcelona.

2+2 link : here. Slightly less than 3 weeks to go, good interest and 7 paid students so far (out of 10). I'll be in BCN 12-29 of may more or less.

It seems I'm going to be the proud owner of a bar in Ougadougou (a family gift). The place isn't entirely built yet and we are hoping the promise of beer will keep the military from destroying the place (a lot of unrest in Burkina Faso atm).

June 1-17 I'll finish up the school year teaching chess in France, and then I'll be basically free. Plans are vague though as they are dependant on the state of my finances + the success of the poker project, realistically I think I'm 10% to stay in Paris and find ways to make money, 20% I spend a few months in Barcelona grinding online poker, 30% I go traveling in SE Asia (I have family in Laos), 20% I go on some kind of Euro trip (cycling along the Danube, hitchiking to Romania/Moldova/Ukraine), 20% I go somewhere else (Canada...? Burkina Faso? It's the rainy season there though).

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Barcelona, unsurprisingly, was a lot of fun. Time kind of stops in the No Worries villa. I didn't see much of the city this time, as I was too busy lazing around in the sun. I did go out once to see my friend Paul perfom in an open scene rock club, and went to see the Real Madrid- Barcelona copa del Rey final in a bar, and again for a night of dancing, but that's about it. The rest was Montada i Reixac; delicious food, throwing people who said "soccer" into the swimming pool, losing bets at ping pong, football, being terrible at darts, books, beer, night long discussions about politics, sex, pepper spray, Mickey Mouse, Zen; social smoking, beer, a nudist balcony, hiking in the woods, partying with travelers, meat, not enough sleeping, pancakes and champagne on sunday mornings, never wanting to leave haha

No reason to be nostalgic though, as I'll be there again as soon as next week to set up the poker camp.

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A few things I'm going to try out this week :

- no more snooze button; regardless of the number of quality hours I slept, when the alarm rings, I get up, wash my face and start the day

- gym : 3 times (I spent 700 euros on a membership, have been 5 times in 3 months)

- internet planification/control : if I'm honest with myself, I've struggled with an addiction to my computer in the last 7/8 years, and it has hampered my development in a strong way. I pride myself on being able to smoke a pack of cigarettes on any given night and never feel the craving to smoke, and yet I have to check my mail 100 times a day and refresh the same fucking 7 websites over and over again. I have turned one of the most powerful tools of enrichment available to us into a mind-numbing TV bis - till today. I will experiment with logging my internet time, and whenever I use my computer pre plan the internet browsing to avoid time wasting.

- blog updating every 3 days or less; have to find my flow, I believe writing a blog is good for me in many ways, but only if I have the discipline to do it right

- watch one TED video daily

- drink 1L of water daily at least

That's probably enough for 1 week; report to follow...

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It's almost 1 a.m and my laptop is dying

Time to finish my glass of wine and say bonsoir, f*** editing

Prague blitz

So... my plane got delayed and I'm dilapidating my last czech crowns in one of the airports restaurants... Can't help but
think of Seinfeld when I get served a tiny soup and half a pint of beer for 15$. They added some bread to the deal, but after biting into it I remembered they do that here without mentionning it costs extra. Oh well, they are just going to have to deal with the fact I don't have enough money to pay the bill. Sigh... at least the internet is free. Jesus, this beer tastes like the kind that's around at 1 p.m when you wake up to clean your place after a party. Yeah, I don't like airports much. A lot of waiting around, and in Europe flights are short so you don't even get to watch a movie or eat anything. Can't rant too much though, I'm off to BCN!!

My Prague stay was a short and refreshing. I got here very late the first day and couldn't find a place to convert my euros to crowns, and thus found myself embarked upon the metro with no ticket - murhpys law dictated of course that I be greeted by
an angry controller 2 stops later. Not in the mood to hurt an already fragile budget, I explained I had just arrived from
Berlin, and had not found a place to change my euros. It was made clear to me that the fine could and should be paid in euros (30 would suffice), so I announced I had no cash on me. Not to be outdone, the underground ticket nazi directed me to a nearby ATM. In an ultimate, desperate attempt to foil the Czech underground police system, I took out my wallet, careful
not to let my lonely 50 euros note become apparent, and whipped out my french credit card. That is, the card to my old account, one that has long been invalid. 3 failed attemps at producing a correct PIN code later, and the ATM swallowed my
card. I was... shocked. Angry. Distraught. I almost cried as I called an imaginary friend. Overcoming the pain and anguish,
I asked the officer if he could write me the fine so that I could pay it later.

I'm quite sure he didn't really believe my act (he must have to deal with dozens of idiots like me a week), but I think he
felt getting 30 euros out of me would be too much trouble and that my performance deserved some kind of recognition, so he
told me I was free to go.

I left the station a happy anarchist, dancing and jumping and singing.... "NIQUE LA POLICE!" (you can probably guess the meaning of the useful french verb NIQUER). Panic attack 5 minutes later as I realized I felt a little too light and floaty. In my joy I had forgotten about my suitcase, waiting patiently near the ATM, at midnight in a fairly dodgy station. Murphy didn't bone me this time around though, and I got my hands on it before anyone else did.

The sun cruelly waited for the last hour of my 2 days to come out, but I enjoyed a few museums as I waited out the rain, ate and drank healthily, and shared some good moments with a couple of my friends here (mmm.... hookah). So, all in all, a nice little stop.

I've got my flip flops and swimsuit ready, brace yourself Barcelona!

Off before I miss my plane, cheers all...

Berlin->Prague in an few hours....

The last few days have been quite packed and I haven't had much time to sit and collect my thoughts for a blog post. I've just booked a bus ticket from Berlin to Prague for 6 p.m on Orangeways. A friend only just mentionned this site to me, it seems like a very cheap way of traveling around the area, my ticket was only 11 euros, cheaper than the 60 euros train ticket and even the 20 euros car share. So now I have an hour or two of alone time with my trusted netbook in my hostel lobby.

My second time in Berlin has only confirmed my suspicion that I really could (should?) make this city my Europe base. I love the energy, the creativity, the experimentation, the never ending nights, the ever flowing beer, the people - the artists, the punks, the anarchists, the musicians, the hippies, the hipsters, the regular folk, the irregular folk. So many rich lifestyles are possible here, even on a budget that in most western european capitals would confine you to a frustrating and socially disconnected routine.

I get the feeling I can walk into any bar and expect it to be interesting or unique in some way; yet sit and order a drink without even asking for the price (in contrast, a Scottish friend of mine got into a huge fight in Paris because he ordered a couple of pints in a random, unremarkable terrasse, and refused to pay the 27 euro bill).

The Madame Claude bar last night was fun, even though I was exhausted from not sleeping in about 40 hours and had to leave before the place really livened up. It had all the ingredients for a good hang out place though : cheap beer (yes I keep bringing up the prices, but it's refreshing to be able to go out, grab a snack, bar hop with friends, go dancing, stumble around and pass out on a bench somewhere, and wake up with some money left in your wallet!), funky decoration, free foosball (I don't even know how to spell that, in french it's "babyfoot"), live music of different styles.

I shared a few drinks with fellow 2+2er HUSNG players ohly, teamsk and rumnchess. It's always nice to put some faces on those avatars, and the more I meet people from the forums the happier I am being part of this diverse community . I somehow managed to beat rumnchess in a best of 3 chess match for the case money in my wallet, despite beer flowing in my system and sleep deprivation, and after getting absolutely destroyed in the first round. So, I'm glad to report chapter 2 of my mid stakes chess gambling career ended well (chapter 1 was a 2006 match v.s an alcoholic ukrainian hustler in a park in Kiev - I lost every dime I had on me in front of a 20 person crowd, despite having drunk one beer to my opponents 8 or 9 during the course of the afternoon).

Other highlights of the trip include a night out in a string of straight-friendly gay venues. We ended up at the Back Door club where they were having some kind of weird "Britney Spears is dead" themed soirée (all the deco was B.Spears related, they even had a shrine with candles, etc.), but with mostly 80s pop in one room and electro stuff in the other. They tortured us for about an hour at the door, but once we were in the dance floors and atomosphere were entrancing.

I also got to rail some high stakes poker for a full night in a suite of the Grand Hyatt Hotel (a big thanks to Pistons and mtvdeuem for letting me in at the heart of the action in such a friendly fashion). So in the end my trip was a strange mix of super busto traveling and "baller" experiences, sprinkled with many a friendly encounter.

I'll only have a couple of nights in Prague, which is exciting and frustrating at the same time because I have so many people and places I want to see there after my december trip.

But I can't be disappointed in jetting off to Barcelona on the 14th - especially because I just found out I'll be there for at least two "Clasico" matches between FCB and Real Madrid. I'll make sure I get my hands on a camera at some point in the next few days.

Time is running short, so I'll just leave you with the link to a poker blog I enjoy; engaging,well-written, and best of all frequently updated : Suited Aces.

It wasn't easy...

But I'm in Berlin. I wish I could show you pictures of my trip, but unfortunately it seems that I've left my camera in a McDonalds in a gas station outside of Leipzig. So much for hitchhiking being a cheap way of traveling, and goodbye 2-day old camera. I'm not a very materialistic person though so I find it easy to brush it off and be happy for the lucky person who found it. Not much else to do really.

[ The universe doesn't want me to own a camera it seems, my last 4 have been broken or lost/stolen in the most ridiculous circumstances (about a month ago, I bought one that was dysfunctional before I even opened the box, I went back to the store and they tried to convince me that I had dropped it on my way home and said the insurance didn't cover it). Meh... I might whip out my credit card again once the pain subsides a bit. A lot of stuff is going to happen on this trip and it seems like an appropriate time to let my Japanese genes express themselves . ]

Strasbourg-Berlin took me 6 or 7 car rides and about 35h (I spent the night in a Leipzig hostel).

The drivers were a diverse and intriguing bunch. A former semi-gangster who told me stories about stealing cars and breaking teeth, a senior dutch couple who had hitchhiked from Rotterdam to New Delhi in the 70s, a silent and mysterious butcher, a German-Russian truck driver who couldn't speak a word of english but showered me with food and sweets, a chef who liked loud electro music and pushing his car to its limits.

The russian fellow dropped me off in a shitty station near Leipzig, from which no cars were en route for Berlin, but in a fit of guilt came back to see me and dropped me off at a hostel near the Leipzig train station. The following day, I took a tram to get to a spot just outside of the city and was in Berlin a couple of hours later (viva fast german cars).

Now for the good stuff!

///frist**

How silly is it to feel pressure in producing an appropriate first post to a blog noone is even reading yet? I only have an hour before my battery dies so I'm just going to dive in; perfectionism would probably mean death to regular updates anyway.

It's a little mysterious to me why I feel the desire to blog again after a couple of predictably miserable attempts in the past. Random reasons could be :
the pleasure of creative writing attention whoring self improvement networking developing geek skills ME ME ME therapy finding an excuse to spend even more time in front of my computer screen keeping friends aware of my projects and whereabouts using technology to fight memory loss - who the fuck knows



Tentative April plans :


5-10 : Berlin (HH to Prague on the 10th)

Railing the EPT. Seeing old friends.

11-14 : Prague (plane to BCN on the 14th)

Partying with the couchsurfing crowd I met in december.

15-22 : Barcelona at the No Worries Villa.

If I have the energy, I'll try out all their activites, the healthy ones (hiking, swimming) the cultural ones (walking tours), the holiday ones (beaches), the degenerate ones (bar crawls), the adrenalin-packed ones (karting, paintball). I'm going to injure myself one way or another, but I'll have a smile on my face the whole way.

23-26 : Hitchhiking back to Paris

Hopefully seeing a bit of family on the way, if they remember me.

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Pain awaits tomorrow as I plan to hitchhike from Strasbourg, France to Berlin, Germany. Last HH trip included a night in a gas station for a 20km/h average speed (14 miles/h?). Stras-Berlin is just under 800km (550 miles, I hope my imaginary non-metric system users appreciate this). I'm counting on the nice weather and fast German highways to get me sucking on a beer in a funky bar by 6 pm.