If i tell you that i did not take the above picture but yet i’m on it.. would you guess where am I? Yep i’m the dude being loaded in the chopper after i crashed with my mountain bike last week end. Now i know why i pay taxes, emergency services are very efficient! My foot did almost 180 degrees on my leg so i could not be transported on roads and had to be moved with the chopper. No medical copter was available so its one of the Marines that came to pick me up. Once at the hospital i had surgery to my ankle. Now i have to lay down for 2 months before i can learn to walk again, and its gonna be long! Supporters can send me the list of their favorites iPad/iPhone games because i’ll have time to try them all :) Meantime, i’ll try to post a couple news here, finally i have time to write.

Darth and Joker, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

I stopped by an old factory not far from home this afternoon, its kind of a museum well known from local painters and street art enthusiasts. The place is huge, and has been abandoned for years. Rumors says it will be destroyed in the upcoming months to build… yet another shopping mall. Some more pics on flickr.

Home Sweet Home, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

Most of my facebook tweeps already knows that: i bought a house last december! After 4 month of work its now sufficiently renovated so i can live in. Since a couple weeks i’m enjoying having my life back (i’ve been at my parents for almost a year, comfortable but yet not as confy as having your own space/furniture/schedule/etc..). I’m still setting up, opening boxes that i brought back from AMS. (re) discovering my own things and that feels good! its like i’m reclaiming my life :) On the plans for the next weeks: finishing lots of details in the house, throwing BBQs and get togethers with the mates and simply enjoying this nice weather. Pics of the work are on my Flickr account (linked on the image above). And of course if you’re around and knows how to contact me you’re very welcome to stop by ;) ttys!

Joe Flemke: A Short Skate Film from Brett Novak.

Kilian Martin: A Skate Regeneration from Brett Novak.

Kilian Martin: A Skate Escalation from Brett Novak.

Losange, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

I like aircrafts! And we saw a lot of them in town (more exactly above town) last week end. The 2 big times of the show were the exhibition of two Rafale jet fighters (no missiles shots tho, i’m kind of disappointed here) and the stunts performed by the Patrouille de France, french army’s finest pilots and their Alphajets (i’m adding one of those on my wish list). Check out the Flickr set to see more pictures from the show. And i still have about 200 to sort! Cheese :)

Good morning servers, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

Long time no see! Yeah i know, since i’m back in France i’m not blogging communicating that much anymore. On the other hand, i’ve never been very regular in publishing stuff. i kinda feel bad about it but that’s my page heh! In an effort to share a bit again, check out the sunday pic above. With the good days coming back, maybe i’ll start shooting again. And hopefully post the results here… soon!

Air France Airbus A321, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

Yep, it’s sunday and i’m lazy so i post my own pictures. I shot this one at CDG while i was walking to get on board. I need to poke with photoshop and find out how to remove the reflection i got from shooting through a window, any help/link welcome!

Oh, If you’re bored, check also this. Happy sunday all :)

Ijburg at night, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

I almost forgot to post music here this month :) Let’s make it up! Wanna hear what i would define as the sound of my days in Amsterdam? Sincerely i never really listened much house music before i moved but since everybody here seems to be Dj, i came to discover new and, i’ll admit it, interesting sounds! I came to know the EarlyMorning Podcast along that. A fine selection of deep and relaxing grooves made by Tijn is Fijn and published as podcasts. Open this link with iTunes and it’ll download the other episodes to your ipod. Good for bike rides and for tram waiting ;)

on my bookshelf, originally uploaded by [Pierrot²].

For those interested, here’s a quick selection of readings. Can you guess what’s my job about with that? ^^

Learning Perl – “Making easy things easy and hard things possible”. Still a work in progress for me :)

Bash Cookbook – A must have for every bash scripters. If you’re already coding a bit, this will help you get to the next level.

The ultimate guide to the Xen Hypervisor – Brilliant book, it explains why and how Xen is more than a kernel patch.

Linux Server Hacks – Tips and tools, quick and dirty workarounds and stuff like this.

Zag?ada, originally uploaded by eisenbahner.

This all started a little bit more than a week ago, when i came back from a vacation in my native Poitou (district of France). Despite my worse fears, i had a very good time over there. Back in dutchyland, i was relaxed and motivated to change a couple things in my everyday. i was so motivated that i decided to quit smoking! Just to put you in my chair for a second: i smoke since more than 10 years, 15 to 20 ciggies a day and that’s not including the pimped ones. My mum used to be big on the cigarette as well. Smart her, she quited 5 years ago. So if she was able to quit, why not me?

The day following my arrival, i woke up early and decided to fight my addiction: I went straight to my local drug store to buy nicotine patches. The (pretty) woman working there kindly oriented me to the ‘middle strenght’ patches (14mg/day) assuring me that it suits for my 15cigs/day. I stick one on my back and go running. I’m sure that it will do the trick and that anything else is just about motivation and brain control.

The first 3 days went quite smoothly: I went running further that i ever did before, generaly spent a lot of time outdoor rather than on the computer. I was relaxed and enjoying the fact that i was still on PTO. Moral was good! I even started cooking a bit more veggies since i was actually able to smell them. Feeling good so far, just a bit anxious, really nothing alarming…

Everything changed on the next day, after lunch. I started being extremely nervous and tired, feeling like going to bed in the middle of the afternoon. My first thought was that it was due to the unusual amount of sport and physical activities i did the last 4 days, my body was asking for some rest. Fair enough, i slept and stayed in bed until the next day.

Day 5, the wake up goes pretty okay. I still wanna burn one but i know i shouldn’t: back on that time i still think that if i resist just a couple more day the miss will go away (don’t ask me where i got that idea). Morning goes, i have lunch but a very light one. Since yesterday i don’t have much appetite anyway. One hour later the fatigue is back, i’m feeling dizzy and sick, again.

Wondering if i’m gonna trow up my lunch or not, i start realizing that the nicotine has more control over my mind than i thought as it’s now tricking all my body. I smoke half of a marlboro kindly provided by roomy. I’m feeling sicker for a second and then 30 min later magic happens: not tired nor sick anymore.. i actually feel better! A couple hours later i went to the corner store and bought myself a pack of my favorites. Patchy is off, i smoke a couple ones in the evening.

Day 6, back to work! I still wanna quit but i’m more aware of my dependence. My patch is back in the action, let’s try not to smoke at the office. 4 hours later i’m feeling bad. All my energy is already gone and my BigMac refuses to stay in my stomach. I’ll finish the day at home. Stressed and nervous, everything around me is an aggression. Even lights and sounds around me comes to bother me. Once again only one thing to get me out of here: take off the damn (and obviously useless) patch and smoke one, again.

Today, no patch. 6 ciggies so far and prolly one more before falling off to bed. My lungs hurts because of starting smoking again, and just to top that i think i’ve caught a f*ing cold. I still wanna quit but i understand that i went too strong on the abstinence. I need to work on reducing my daily consumption before stopping. I learned that i can’t quit in just a week and that nicotine got much more control over me than i thought.

Despite the distance my parents provided me with great support over the phone through all that, i will never thank them enough to support me whatever i decide to do and no matter how many times i change my mind about it! Friends are not forgotten, i’ll make it up for the parties i was invited to and did not attend this last week! My final advice? Don’t quit smoking, it will make you sicker :p