A Nomad I Am

I am a nomad, it's official now.
In a temporary place I live,
To move to the next place soon.
And after that another one,
Of which I know I'll leave it anyhow.

I enjoy being a nomad, I know now.
Moving from place to place,
Home to home, country to country.
Taking with me new experiences
along the way, new habits, new culture.
Always growing and learnig somehow.

No more fixed places, the world completly open.
Opportunities everywhere.
A nomad I am.

Snapshots of Lutetia - Eastwood on the Champs

The Champs-Elysées is generally known for the shops that are almost always open. The area between the Arc de Triomphe and the Rond Point (des Champs-Elysées et Marcel Dassault) is practically always buzzing with people. And then, normally, it gets a bit quiter. The part between Rond Point and Concorde is mainly green. No shops to be found. You have the Grand and Petit Palais, and then greenery and park. This is a great spot for exhibitions and events. The christmas market, the finish of the Tour de France; 100 years of aviation, a Bugatti show and now a hommage to Clint Eastwood. I wonder whether in Riga there is such a place...

Snapshots of Lutetia - La Defense

When I started working in Paris, a lot of my friends and colleagues, not only from the Netherlands, assumed that I was working in La Défense. The business district just west of Paris. In fact, the office I work in is in Saint Cloud, about 10 minutes south of La Défense with the tramway. But assuming that someone working for one of the bigger companies in Paris, is located in La Défense is not strange at all. In fact, most of the big French corporations, including my employer, have offices in this business center of Paris. Even so, there is business life outside La Défense.

Snapshots of Lutetia - Christmas Shopping

Dressing up shop windows for the Christmas season, is something the Dutch do not specialize in. Of course, there is some special decoration, but not as abundant as in other countries. Sure, De Bijenkorf branches have their Sinterklaas and Christmas tricks, but that is mostly inside the shops. In Paris, however, it is a yearly event. People go out to look at what Printemps, La Fayette and Bon Marché have come up with. This year, the general theme seems to be moving puppets. In the picture, one of the windows of Printemps, especially made for Chanel.

Een Social Computing Reactie op de Kersttoespraak

Zoals elk jaar, heb ik de Kerst toespraak van Koningin Beatrix gemist. Gelukkig verscheen op Twitter al snel een link naar de volledige tekst. Dat is het mooie van twitter, vanachter een computer scherm kijk je naar berichten van mensen die je vertrouwt, tot op zekere hoogte. En die berichten leiden je vaak naar interessante inzichten, beter begrip voor andere standpunten, en waardevolle informatie. En daar hebben we gelijk een mooie brug naar de Kersttoespraak. Hoewel ik zeer veel voel voor de oproep tot gemeenschapszin die Koningin Beatrix doet, ik ben het sterk oneens met de notie dat het contact vanachter het scherm daar een tegengestelde kracht op vormt. Niet alleen is er al aardig wat wetenschappelijk onderzoek gedaan waaruit blijkt dat Social Computing een positief effect kan hebben in het opbouwen van teams en het bewerkstelligen van vertrouwen. Twee aspecten die aan gemeenschapszin zeker bijdragen. Daarnaast zijn er ook voorbeelden van hoe dat in werkelijkheid er aan toe kan gaan. Een voorbeeld uit mijn eigen ervaringen dit jaar, is de 10K4N Challenge die ik organiseerde. Volledig vanachter computerschermen werden wereldwijd 70 deelnemers aan een hardloopuitdaging georganiseerd, en werd 2000 dollar ingezameld, voldoende om een jaar onderwijs voor 2 meisjes in India te financieren. Als de Koningin vraagt om meer gemeenschapszin, dan kan sta ik daar volledige achter. Ik zou haar echter willen vragen om daarbij ook aandacht te geven aan de versterkende werking die social computing kan hebben op het opbouwen van een sterkere gemeenschap, ook buiten de eigen landsgrenzen.

(This post is a response to the Christmas Speech of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. In exception to the general rule here, it is posted in Dutch)

A Trip Down Memory Train

Roosendaal, Lage Zwaluwe, Gilze-Rijen. Dordrecht, Breda, Tilburg. Not to mention all the Belgian small towns and cities. Or the Dutch football stadiums De Kuip and the Fuji Film of respectively Feyenoord and NAC Breda. The journey today takes longer than it was supposed to do. Somewhere in Belgium, even before Brussels, the high speed Thalys train that was supposed to bring me from Paris to Rotterdam in two and a half hours, broke down. The driver managed to temporarily fix it and get the train at crawling speed to Brussels. But from there we had to take the regular train. And because I was heading for Den Bosch, after that I had to go via Breda with two trains that call on all stations in between. I could have been annoyed, but that woudn't have brought me to my destination any faster. The first part was enjoyable enough, talking to a Dutch friend who coincidentally had the same train. The second and third part were mainly through a rural part of the Netherlands, covered in snow. Passing places I haven't passed by train in a very long while. Now that I am on the verge of moving from Paris to Riga, it is good to have a trip like this, and finding out that is has a nice nostalgic feel to be in the Netherlands, but that - apart from family and friend - there is nothing I really miss. I wouldn't exchange Riga for Dordrecht or Breda in a million years. But going back once in a while is not so bad.

Snapshots of Lutetia - La Defense Concerts

One of the things I will miss in Paris, is the irregularly regular free classical music concert in La Défense. Now and then, a group of professional musicians performs classical music in the halls of the La Défense public transport station. And, unlike a lot of musicians you find in the Parisian subterranean transport system, these guys are GOOD! Often, they play one of my favorites: the Canon of Pachelbel. And, they play it very well. Always when I hear them, on my way from the deep down RER A to the Tramway 2, I take that small detour to listen to three or four pieces. It is like a little present on your way to work. Just forgetting about time, listening, enjoying the moment, and being happy.

Song Story 10 - It's The Season To Be Jolly

When working at one of my previous employers, it was always fun to come to the office. As consultants we obviously spent most time at client premises, so when once every two weeks you had the chance to meet colleagues that were not on the same project, you'd take the opportunity. As a smoker, some bad habits are hard to break, I had to go outside to smoke, which obviously you did not alone (some people even say that smokers have the best networks in companies). To send out a general call to smokers, often a simple, easy to remember and hard to get out of your head tune would be whistled in the hallways. Especially in summer, or in fact any other month than December, to our non-smoking colleagues it always sounded a bit weird. And not only for the whistling.

Years later, late this summer, one of the guys I follow tweeted that he had this christmas song in his head he couldn't get rid of. And indeed, once it sits there, it sort of sticks with you. It is one of these songs that makes you hum, sing or lalala them out loud, at the most inapropriate moments. When he found out which one it was, I immediately had the urge to go out and have a smoke. Yes, Deck The Halls was our smoking tune. Even when it was not the season to be jolly.

Have a wonderful Christmas.

What Matters Now - Choices

Life is about making choices and making yourself accountable for the ones you made. Once you realize that, you understand that you are in control. It is not your unfriendly colleague, or your boss, or that aggressive driver, or the economy. It is you. Sure, there are factors that influence your life, but you control the choice to what extent they do so.

If you don't like your job, or your relationship, or the colour of your hair, you have the choice to change it. You have to realize that not changing it, is also a choice. And both, as with most choices, have their consequences. If you choose to stay in a job you don't like, because of the job security and the payment of your bills, then that is a choice. And the consequence is that you are not happy in your work. You are free to change that. If you want both to have a fun job, and a secured monthly income to pay your bills, you have the choice to change careers. Or employer. Or spend less.

Can you choose success? I'm not sure. But you can certainly make the choice to go for it. To be happy, and to do what's within your reach to be as successful as you can be. Failing in that is not a big deal. Maybe you do not achieve the target, but you chose to have fun. And that was then apparently also one of your goals.

So make 2010 about making choices. Then evaluate where they lead you, and if necessary, make a new choice.

This post is inpired by the work of Seth Godin. The book he initiated, What Matters Now, is a great initiative. It brings together brilliant and inspiring people like Jacqueline Novogratz, Elizabeth Gilbert, Chris Anderson and Kevin Kelly, to name but a few, and their thoughts for 2010. Download the book, share it, and tell us what your word for 2010 is.

Snapshots of Lutetia - Ever Present Gare de Lyon

Strangely, the Gare de Lyon has always been prominently connected to my Parisian visits and life. I don't pass by there on my daily commute, or live close to it. So it could have been one of these places of which you know exist, but just hardly ever see. But on my first ever visit to Paris, I was about 15, we stayed in a hotel next to the Gare de Lyon. And from there it started. I vaguely remember walking through the station and seeing the orange TGV's, the largesse of it, something we do not have in Dutch stations, and the crowds moving. Then, just about when I started to consider Paris as a possible place to live, the brilliant movie 'Amélie' was released, in which the Gare de Lyon also plays a prominent role, even though most of the movie seems to be set in the 18th arrondissement. And then, there are the occasional business trips to our office near Grenoble, for which I take the now more greyish coloured TGV. From the Gare de Lyon, that services the destinations in the southern part of France. That might also be why the station's main restaurant has tried to give itself a bit of a mediterranean look by putting up a palm tree in one of the station's halls.