Recently in It's good to be French Category

I made it back. Back to the city atleast. I gave up on the job in the South. After a few weeks it was too much effort for too little reward and now here I am. But I've been very busy. my iPod that I've had since forever took one too many dives and gave up the magic smoke. So I've been monkeying with every file recovery program under the sun that has support for HFS+ and Windows or Linux support. Obviously this would be easier on a Mac but I don't have that at my disposable.....look at that the entire music partition disappeared.

This only gets better.

I've never had the luxury of experiencing a heatwave in France until now. I had taken a trip to Monacco previously and while the coast is very warm nothing beats the city heat. It radiates from everywhere the buildings, the roads, the sun. And you can't escape it. When we were at the country home the 150 year old stone walls kept the temperature sensible. But my little flat is a nice oven. With zero air circulation. And quite loud with my neighbors' construction projects.
Truthfully, I've never felt so miserable. While Florida had its droughts and heatwaves we also had A/C tons of it. In the littlest shitty bodega. So I was never too uncomfortable. except when the A/C broke in the "Flying Carrot". Then I worked double duty to get it fixed.

The students of France have taken to the streets to protest a new bill that would allow employers to give them at-will employment for the first two years. I'm a victim and unfortunate advocate of at-will employment. While most people would like to have an income through working sometimes its not possible in the current market.
Currently I'm a freelance web developer and nothing makes me sweat more than the time between projects. But it has its rewards. I get calls from recruiters on occassion who ask me about my workstatus and when they find out I freelance they assume I'd never go back to being corporate. My response, "If the money's right I'll work in the mailroom."

What I'm trying to get at is the students and youth have a skewed view of what the state can provide in the form of security. Sometimes to provide security you need to let the market correct itself and let in some insecurity. You can lose a lot of traction and let the country continue to slide or loose/gain a lot from free-market forces.

For those that don't know spend some time reading Thomas Friedman.

That means Happy New Year! And I started this year running at a million miles an hour. The Acura TSX didn't come through liked I had hoped in 2005. But there is still 2006 and I'm working on it hard dammit. Just setting my sights a little higher.
The DSL is a bust for now. You would think one of the G7 countries would atleast have the technology to sort out haw to get 5000m of fiber to get the right signal. But they never did and since they CHARGE YOU for tech support calls it quickly lost its value for me. I'll Wifi shop and jack someone else's connection until I can get a half decent provider.

Cheers, mates

Joe here. Sorry I've been gone for so long but I've been so busy checking out everyone elses weblog that I haven't had time to do anything with mine. And that I have to change. But I think it has to do with when the wife is in. If she's here I'm really not on the internet that often and when she's not it's like crack. I gotta have my fix.
I stumbled on a messageboard the other day on the airline industry. After reading about what it takes to be cabin crew. And according to someone else I think I can totally do that. Yes, it would be a total career change. Not to mention a ridiculous drop in salary, but atleast you get to go places and isn't that what really want.
Back to slacking off.
Peace

I moved! Sorry if I've been incognito for a while but I moved to a small studio in the 18th that would put Nadine's little flat to shame. (Sorry Nadine, couldn't help myself :-) ). The new crib is Martha Stewart "cozy". I was reading my American magazines on the train to the other day and came across some add for deodorant. Punchline, "For guys who know just one French word 'Men�ge a trois'." My french is a little better than that but you never know. I could one day just blurt it out after being frustrated and in a predicament....which appears to be all the time now. Now what to do what to do....wrestle Jamaican beauracracy and then full Nelson French beauracracy.

Embarrassing tidbit. I'm walking along Sebastopol and a young African approachs me and says, "Vous coiffure?" The meaning of what he meant is completely lost on me. Either he wants to give me a haircut or he wants to know if I cut hair. (If he wanted to know if I wanted a haircut he would have said, "Vous-voulez coiffure?"). Since I didn't want to be bothered I walked off looked at my reflection and walked into the nearest Indian barber. Worked out great. The building lady thinks I'm 15 (quinze) and I have a meeting with a CEO nextweek who won't be impressed that some kid is trying to get a management job. Live and learn people.

For those that forgot, it was my birthday lastweek. 30 is gaining ground on me and I'll be out of excuses of why my life is a really bad game of Lunatic Fringe.