Just to know that you are near:.

A few months ago I watched The Tree of Life, and I remember saying, WTF is this shit?. I know that it's kind of a heresy to admit it, but something similar happened to me the first time I watched Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowsky (though these films are in a complete different league!).  

Anyway, I'm telling this story because in a conversation I had with some friends last week, I was arguing that some movies need to be experienced more than once, before you barely start appreciating their beauty. Maybe the first time(s) you're in a bad mood, you don't have good companionship, the environment is not good, or you just don't have the necessary life experience. The tragedy is that we tend to judge things based only on the first experience.

And how did the topic come into discussion?. Well, there's a long tradition in some european cities to project movies in open air during hot summer nights, and Grenoble is a proud member of that tradition. So, last week's movie was The Tree of Life, and despite my previous experience, I decided to give it a try!. Maybe it was the 8.4° beer, the warm summer night, the freedom of my new MétroVélo bike, or something else, but this time I really liked the movie!.

I know this phenomenon is not exclusive of movies, but since almost everything I know I had learned through movies or tv series, this is something I can easily relate to =):.

To get through,
to the man in me.

If we're looking in the dark:.

I could tell you about the madness that these last weeks have been, including the search for a new place to live in, cleaning and moving out from my old apartment, updating a project just in time for its presentation, losing each and every one of the football games we played this season (and not only that, but also losing our only ball in the deeps of the Rhône river), getting all my clothes wet during my flight to another country, and having to explain to a german custom officer how I managed to get into some airport restricted area...

But no, I'll just tell you about how I got the chance to meet some legendary model-driven stars, in an european modeling conference. Moreover, it was really interesting to meet again some colleagues from the software maintenance community, and to see the relatively high interest that some industry folks have in this type of events. One final remark, once again informal conversations (5-10 min) seemed to be way more effective than formal conference talks. All in all, an excellent way to start this summer!!:.

No one's gonna find any answers,
if we're just trying to hide, 
from the things we know inside, 
are the truth.

Pas d’autre issue de secours:.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to see, for the second time in my life, one of the best bands of our generation, Beach House!!. The first time was two years ago, in an epic concert back in Mexico city, and despite the differences in space and time, I found some similarities, and some other things that I would like to talk about.

Well, the first and most obvious similarity is that a lot of people go to the concert barely knowing the name of the band they are going to see. I don't mean to say this is a bad thing, I actually encourage it. There's nothing like listening to a good song for the first time in your life, and if it is with live sound, you're up for an epic experience!!.

Since the concert was not in my city, I decided to share the transportation fees with some other guys (Covoiturage). One of them was a girl from the USA, in particular from Colorado, and after the concert she made a comment that I found particularly interesting. She said that she had really enjoyed the concert, and that it had been a good experience not to be surrounded by Marihuana smoke. She explained that in Colorado Marihuana is legal, in theory only for medical purposes, but that it's really easy to get a prescription to buy it. It's only natural that when you go to a concert, the place is full of people using it.

I'm not naïve, it's not like in Mexico and France people don't do drugs during concerts, but as this girl could tell, the percentage is fairly low if you compare it to other places (in my personal experience, it has never been more than 15-20%). There are many other variables to consider, like the type of music, the venue, the age group, etc. It's a complicated subject, and in my opinion, legalization is the only way to go, but that will be the topic of another post:.

Recycler cette colère,
car aujourd’hui plus qu’hier,
cette colère reste mon meilleur carburant.

Hoping to find some old forgotten words:.

Among other things, I'm a tv series addict. Certainly not as addicted as mythical Mr. Cejudo (legend has it he could browse the whole internet in offline mode, back in 2004), but I do spend a great deal of time watching excellent series. Anyway, I'm telling this because about a month ago I saw a particularly interesting reference in Family Guy's season finale (Africa by Toto), and it reminded me of similar moments in other great series like House (Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight) and Scrubs (Overkill by Men at Work and Light and Day by The Polyphonic Spree).

I really love moments like this, where you can listen to some old forgotten song and remember that good music is really timeless!!. And to prove it, here are the moments I've been talking about, enjoy =). (Just a little warning, some might consider the Family Guy video as NSFW, that is, Not Safe For Work)

Found yourself in a new direction:.

Some years ago I saw a particularly interesting story in the What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? film. It was about how native americans were not able to see Columbus' ships, when he first arrived to the new world. They couldn't see them, or maybe they did but decided to ignore them anyway, because those ships were very different to anything they knew. 

For them, a floating device should be similar to a canoe, and nothing else. The problem was that those new things were definitely not shaped as canoes. Of course, eventually they recognized Columbus' ships and their true function, but the morale of the story is that, most of the time, "we only see what we believe is possible, we tend to match patterns that already exist within ourselves". 

I'm telling this story because a similar situation happened to me these last weeks. I prepared an initial proposal for a combination of ideas that could be interesting for my current work, and I decided to present them to people working in two different domains. The responses I got from each group were totally (totally!) different. It's not that one of these groups is necessarily right or wrong, it just proves that the way you look at things depends a lot on your previous experience and knowledge, your existing patterns. Like I've said in previous posts, it's difficult to see things with a different perspective, but we should never stop trying!.

Anyway, in the following weeks I'll have the opportunity to discuss these ideas both with like-minded colleagues and with people with a much more different perspective than mine, we'll see how it goes  =):.

And in between,
it’s never as it seems.

What you want to be:.

Last month, two events made me remember a great lesson: There's more to life than just {work, money, programming, football, papers, music, tv...}. 

First, I had the chance to travel with my sister across Europe, backpacking style!. We shared some really good moments, and I also think that the trip served us well to put things in our lives in perspective. That's what I like about trips, it's not only about sightseeing, but also about opening your mind. Now that I think about it, that's a lesson I learned from my brother =).

The second event was Pep Guardiola's farewell. The goodbye of a true lider and role model!!. The whole world admired his work, but as the Oracle said: everything that has a beginning has an end. He could've continued working just for the money, or the fame. He could've accepted one of the multi-million offerts from all around the world. But no, as he explained in his goodbye conference, there's more to life than just football, and he (as we all) need to find out what that is.

I guess that at the end of the day, the key is to find the right time to enjoy those little things that make up your life:.

Being myself makes me feel,
like I know who you are.

Trying to find a way:.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a software conference in Szeged, Hungary, and I think this was one of the best experiences I've had so far in my PhD. The combination of interesting people, good talks and a nice environment, was totally worth the effort it took us to get there!.

It's really interesting how you can find people so similar to you, I mean, not only in the topics you like, but also on the subtle things that define who you are. For example, one day I was having meal with a couple of friends, and at one point, one of them said that she considered herself to be sort of an antisocial (to be honest, that's common in our field). The thing is that she said it so casually, that some of the other guys were shocked by her affirmation. They couldn't believe that she could talk about it so openly, and without feeling like she needed to justify her nature, but not me!. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother some years ago, where I said the same exact thing, in the same exact tone, and caused almost the same reaction. I couldn't help but smile =):.

Little details like this, where you start recognizing little bits of yourself in the people around you, are really (really) interesting. Anyway, this was just an example, next time I'll talk about similar experiences, regarding Harry Potter, magic and saving the world!.

Alright, let's go outside,
and rise, rise, rise, to the meaning of life!.