Desperate Freelancer

Xmas is coming and it's time for long neverending meals with lots of food and talks. So what a surprise to discover a few days before this great event and celebration that unite people in the biggest part of European and American Nations, that an harsh polemic has been spreading on blogs about the different relation to food between US and European citizens.

It all started with a post of Michael Arrington about the famous Joie de Vivre of Europeans. Relating his experience at LeWeb 3, a conference about startups and entrepreneurship organized in France by Loic Le Meur, he complained about our laziness and too great interest for taking time to have lunch.

He was strongly fought back by Loic, asking his readers if Michael should be invited for the next session of his event.

In this kid fight between Michael Arrington and Loic Lemeur, I would like to intrude and give my point of view. As a senior citizen, I have the duty to raise up the debate a little bit, if I can of course.

I will let aside ego & business matters of these two charming guys to go straight to the point. It's a deep conflict of civilizations.

Yes, we, Europeans, entrepreneurs or not, take hours for lunch while American consider nourishing themselves as a pure necessity that should be done the quicker they can. They have a better way to spend their time.

On the other side, Us People can spend their life on the Internet to surf, do Facebook things and so on. According to a study they now spend half of their spare time on the web. So much more interesting, isn't it ?

But it's wider than that. We just spend hours living, while they spend their time working. A considerable difference about main concern in life.

Why ? Because Europe and America are at two different stages of evolution as civilization, whatever Michael and Loic could say about entrepreneurship and so on...

United States is a young nation, and has still things to prove. Yet it pretends to rule the world, It defines economics and politics influences all over the world and is the richest nation and bla bla bla.. but, com'on, they are just teenagers that have to work hard to show daddy that they can make it.

And that's exactly what they are doing. Great.

Europe has done its time. It has ruled the world for a long time. It has done what it has to do in order to bring civilization, democracy and old fashioned stuff like that everywhere it can be brought. Europe has set Culture, education and fine art to a level never reached before.. so we don't need to work so hard anymore. We can rely for some time on our assets.

Yes, it looks like a decline. And it is. But what the f.. ?

Yes America seems more successful in business, but it takes so much effort and so much failure, so much sacrifice to build big companies on the other side of Atlantic. Whereas in France, Spain, Italy, though a culture less favorable to entrepreneurship we still build nice companies without having to sacrifice life in the process.

Moreover, Civilization, as Michael and Loic seem to forgot, is not only about business and money. It's a lot more than that. It has to do with Literature, Art, conversation, habits, manners, and food.

Yes food. What a supreme proof of advanced civilization to spend time in making and savouring sophisticated, excellent food !

So why shouldn't we take hours for lunch if we like to ? We, the old boys, have this privilege as the ancient masters of a decaying world that we want no more to govern.

What could have the barbarians have to say to that ?

Whereas everyone else in France (and in Europe I guess) is planning Xmas, I am taking profit of this wild episode of our consumerist societies to get some rest. And.. as resting, staying still, is something I still can't do at my age, I am starting instead investigating websites about my new hobby : cybernetics.

Cybernetics is really amazing. I can't define it precisely, because it is still too weird for me, but it could be described as a science that will enable human beings to become robots.. How ? by replacing parts of the human body by electronic devices.

In a way, it may seems stupid, why would we want to become robots ? Robots are creepy, dull and boring. But, if you think a lot deeper, you can imagine that it will lead us to greater skills, greater perspectives, a longer life and so on. A step towards immortality, the old dream of mankind.

The thing is.. cyborgs are already here. We just don't know them for what they are. Many people have technological pieces designed to replace limbs or organs. Think one second about pacemakers, about artificial hips, about people who have implanted micro-chips under their skin. They are cyborgs stricto sensu.

But cyborgs are getting more and more sophisticated nowadays. It's not yet like in this old US series The Six Milion dollars Man but we are slowly heading to transform ourselves in a few years from now into serious opponents to Bigfoots :

More seriously... we are really getting to it. I found a blogger named Tanya Vlach who is intending to install a webcam in her eye socket, instead of her lost eyeball.

She wants to be able to record parts of her life, from her point of view, by filming what her cyborg eye will see. And she is calling engineers for help.

You can read more on the Daily News.

Experts say it's possible.

And she is not the only one to have such a dream. Another blogger is also planning to have his lost eye replaced by a wireless camera. Rob Spence is a Canadian filmmaker who wants to have a micro cam installed inside his prosthetic. He wish he can use the camera the same way any filmmaker would use a camera enabled cell phone : a new tool for exploring new ways in his art.

So these two people, Tanya and Rob, would soon be, if they succeed, real cyborgs. They will have electronic devices inside their body that will communicate with the rest of the world. They will be able to send images or movies to their websites, and why not, one day record each other ?

Amazing, isn't it ?

I still hardly believe it could be true one day.

People are strange and Ian Usher is a strange dude for sure. In June this year, this Australian 44 years old guy decided to sell all his life on Ebay.

And when he said all his life, he was pretty serious. He means ALL his life : house, his car, motorbike, jet-ski, spa, and stuffs and things, also his job, pets and even his friends.. You can see the whole list (with photos, videos on his website : http://www.alife4sale.com/)

Why did he do that ? Well, the man gave us some explanation about a love story turning short and so on. But don't get fooled, it's an excuse. He wanted to sell his life, because it's the craziest thing he could do at that time. He is a real pioneer in our post-modern world. He started something new, an exploration of a new world : the life-selling. I am sure, fools as we are, that in a few decades, we will all be selling or trading our lifes on the Internet. Life after all is a consumer good as well as any other.

He narrated all his story on his blog (hours of auction I guess, I don't have the energy to read it fully).

To make it short, you can just watch that video :

On the 29 June, the auction ended on the amount of $399,300 (Australian Dollars). The price of his complete life style. Well under what he expected ($500 000 ) and well under the real price of the House (about $400 000). Even if, he had a great media coverage with this silly adventure, he got a lot of disappointment too. He was victim of hoax bids making him believe in the first time he was going to get the jackpot...

Sadly, with this AU$ 399 300 bid, he didn't even get a real buyer and apparently is still looking for one guy to grab the full package, as he relates in this post.

Sold or not sold, whatever.. Ian decided to start a new life. He decided to walk out the door of its house in Perth, with only a wallet and passport, in order to start a new challenging life. And, as his insanity has not cured by miracle, he jumped into a new madness : he set himself the objective to reach 100 goals in 100 weeks.

Hurray !

I hate Christmas.

There are some many reasons why I hate Xmas that I can write a book about all that hatred.

I will just give you three of them. And with these 3 simple reasons, I am sure you will start hating Christmas (if you don't already), as much as I do. Join the dark side, dude :

- Xmas now begins on the 15th of November. Can't you see it in the shopping malls since mid-November ? All these folks lining in the stores to grab a handful of dull presents for every stupid guy they know.. All these children whining all their tears out to get the latest expensive useless toy they will only play once and that will lead their parents to bankruptcy... And so on. Because merchants are starting Xmas pressure on this consumer feast sooner and sooner every year, I guess in ten years from now, we will start thinking about Christmas in the middle of June. It bugs me so much, I could hang High every Santa I met in Shops.

- Xmas Food is disgusting. It's always the same stuff you are compelled to gulp down : nice and appetizing meals became over the years, fat, tasteless, boring food. Ok, you have Wine and Champaign, but you have Wine and Champaign all over the year. And why such a mess about turkey and chesnut ? It's not even good. Have you ever tasted a "Cordon Bleu", or a "Daube" or "Creme brulée" ? Man, there is not comparison. And there is so much more in cooking that oyster and "foie gras".. I am so bored of the lack of imagination people have for Xmas meals.. always sticking to the same dishes as if it could spice up the conversation.

- People get so excited about Xmas It makes me sick. Come on, it is every year the same story.. why are you prancing along like mad squirrels in front of a huge hazelnut ? It's not as if you could be surprised .. or as if you will for the first time see the Pyramids, or loose your virginity in the Prom of your school or inherit from your rich Saudi Uncle. It's just another Disneyworld Drama coming and disguising all the streets of your town into an hallucinating parody of the Milky Way. I don't understand why, years after years, they still get electrical during a whole month just because they get a few presents in the end. Most of them, they won't ever use. Are they missing their childhood so much ? Well, whatever. It gets on my nerves.

Don't hide man. You now hate Xmas. We all do. There is no reason someone decent would like such an event. So, don't you think, it's time to get rid of an old degrading tradition ? Just like we eliminated poors' rights to property a few month ago ?

When something is turning out wrong.. on our computer.. like a virus or something similar.. we don't spend hours to wonder what to do with it.. it goes directly into the trash can.

Why can't we delete Christmas the same way ?

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