What bothered me about Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It's been 2 weeks now since the release of Episode VII of Star Wars, named The Force Awakens. I won't believe you if you tell me you've never heard of it. As a big fan, even I was overwhelmed with the enormous amount of publicity about it, with an overdose of Star Wars labeled products available everywhere (from water to batteries and toilet paper).

The movie is on its way to battle with Avatar for biggest gross income worldwide at the rate it's going (already 8th overall, without the Chinese market, opening in about a week). Obviously, these results wouldn't be so high if the film wasn't an enjoyable experience.

I enjoyed it very much, and after a ten year wait since the previous movie, I left the theater with a sense of wonder such as only this saga can bring me. Moreover, my wife who's never been a big fan of the franchise was very enthusiastic when the ending credits appeared.

However, a few details bugged me during the viewing, and the days that passed since increased both the number of details and the importance of them. Disappointment, probably due to excessively high expectations, appeared.

Spoilers ahead!! For those who haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to stop here.

Tribute to the origins, or lack of creativity?

Since the announcement that new Star Wars movies would be made, and especially since J.J. Abrams has accepted the job to direct the first of these new movies, it was clear that the goal was to emulate the spirit of the Original Trilogy. Upon watching The Force Awakens, it is impossible to deny that the objective has been reached. Maybe a little bit too much.

First, let's take a lot at the story, and especially, the similarities with the very first movie, namely Episode IV.

Some critical data is hidden in a droid, lost on a sandy planet. After being captured by scavengers, the droid meets the future hero. They leave the planet aboard the Millenium Falcon. A dark, masked antagonist, too late to retrieve the critical data, tortures the protagonist who hid the data inside the droid. Once the droid safely reaches the Resistance/Rebellion headquarter, an attack is decided against a ferocious station that can destroy planets. The station is destroyed after a vulnerable point has been hit, leaving the masked antagonist probable to return later to avenge the attack.

I have of course left out of the summary multiple points aside, but I think anyone can agree that from this short synopsis, it is impossible to tell which of Episode IV or VII I was referring to. Some might not mind the excessive mirroring of the two stories, it did bother me. Sadly for me, the lack of creativity for me doesn't stop there.

After the story, the setup mirrors way too much in my opinion. Everything is done so that old fans are put in a situation of comfort. Too much for me. The movie, happening about three decades after the event of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, leaves us with a sensation that nothing much has evolved. There still is a civil war between an Empire-like side and a rebellion, the addition of a mostly unseen New Republic being mainly useless to the story. But worse than that, the lack of evolution of the characters bothers me. Leia is still a high personality in the Resistance, apparently not trained in the ways of the Force. Han and Chewbacca are still smugglers. The case made for this situation actually makes sense, but it still leaves us with a sour taste, as if the galaxy had been frozen in carbonite for 30 years. 

Too much tribute, but too much novelty

The second point on which the new episode seems to miss the mark can seem to be negating the first one. The spirit behind it is quite different though. 

We are back in an universe we all know. However, if we put aside the characters who had a line (including Ackbar and Nien Nunb for instance) in the previous movies, the universe seems to be all new. All the planets are new, never mentioned before. Even the desert planet (Tatooine/Jakku) and the urban planet (Coruscant/Hosnian Prime) are all new.

And while I might be wrong, I can't remember of one species that appeared on the screen during Episode VII that also appeared before. No Hutt, no Twi'lek, no Rodian, no Gungan (I know most are happy about that one), no Nautolan, no Weequay, no Gamorrean, ... and the list goes on.

While so much effort has been put to place the fans into a known story, none of the background actually reminds us of the old Star Wars movies. Are we even in the same galaxy or were the main characters transported in another one?

A few details that weigh in on the result

These last few inputs are actually of different kinds. 

The last planet seen on screen, now known as Ahch-To, had a striking effect on me. We were not in a galaxy far, far away anymore. We were on Earth. I know the emphasis has been put during production on actual filming on location. But the way of filming that scene, and the decor in itself left me disappointed.

Another last point that I will bring up here, is in relation to the Starkiller Base and its actions. I know we're in a space opera and not in a hard SF setting, so I'll pass on the laser beam going faster than light, let's say it's possible in that universe. No problem with that. But how can such a beam separate in multiple beams just before impact? And worst of all, and Abrams is becoming notorious for not knowing how light and space function, especially that space is huge and light is slow: How were the people on Takodana able to see the destruction of the Hosnian System? The sunlight takes 8 minutes to reach us, and compared to the distance between stars, this is ridiculously fast. That made no sense.

Still excited about Episode VIII

You might think now that I am done with Star Wars after that. You would be obviously very wrong. I only listed the problems of this new episode. I didn't list all the good points because this was not the subject of this blog post. I am still very excited about Episode VIII and the direction in which this movie has set up the future of the franchise with its ending. I'm hoping for a little more risks and innovation in the story though, and a little more familiarity with the planets and extras to make me feel like I'm a that beloved galaxy far, far away...

How much is worth a couch advertised $500 in a store and $800 in another one?

A couch is advertised for $500 in a store and for $800 in another one. How much is it worth?

In case you can't find the answer to that question, let me reassure you: it is perfectly normal. That question is actually incomplete, and some context is lacking. You might find that surprising but nothing has a value per se. A value only has meaning if it is referring to someone. And everyone is different, meaning that an object's value is different for each person.

This is easy to demonstrate. Let's take a few examples.

I bought a couch a week ago. How much is that advertised couch mentioned earlier to me? I would say close to 0€. Why would I spend any money on a couch when I already have a new one in my leaving room? No matter how low of a price a store would sell, I wouldn't buy it because I don't need a second couch.

Other example: I don't have a couch, or an old one that needs replaced. But I don't like that specific new couch that is sold in these stores. Once again, this new couch is worth close to nothing to me. Maybe I would settle to buying it for $50 but no more, as a temporary one until I find one that I actually like.

On the opposite, let's say I need a new couch. The one we have been talking about is my dream couch. Of course, I am going to go buy it (in the store that sells it for $500 if I am aware of it). But I would have bought it even for $1,500.

The same exact couch is worth nothing for one, $50 at most for the other and up to $1,500 for the last one. It doesn't matter what a store price tag means. If I buy a book for $20, what it means is I'd rather have the book than the $20. At the same time, when the bookstore sells that book for $20, it means that the seller would rather have the $20 than the book.

In fact, money is not necessary to determine the value of something. Money is just a tool to facilitate exchanges. Without money, how would a baker buy meat at the butcher? Bread, his product, might not be what the butcher wants in exchange for the meat he provides. Money answers that problem. That's all it does, that's all it is.

Browns: Meet the new AFC North leader

After this Sunday and the Steelers loss at the Jets (13-20), the Browns are now sole leaders of the AFC North division in the NFL. Obviously, I had never seen that before. What's more surprising is that even long-time followers of the NFL can't remember that ever happening. If what I read is correct, it's been since 1994 that the Browns haven't been first of their division --AFC Central then-- that late in the season.

With a 6-3-0 overall record after Week 10, the Browns are becoming contenders for the play-offs in the mind of analysts and Football enthusiasts. Their win at Cincinnati on Thursday (24-3) broke a good number of streaks :

• As mentioned already, 20 years without a division sole lead for the Browns that late in the season
• A 14 home winning streak for the Bengals in regular season
• A 17 road losing streak for the Browns in division matchups

AFC North Standings after week 10 - Screenshot from NFL.com

Moreover, the fact that they are first in the only division in which all teams have a positive record is even more amazing.

That being said, the path is still long with 7 games left in the regular season before even dreaming continuing in January. Four road games for three home games, two division games receiving the Bengals on week 15 before going to the Ravens for the last game of the regular season, each week, the Browns will now have to prove worthy of their new status.

The reasons for the division lead

The Browns have shown in their first 9 games a variety of good qualities that can explain the unexpected lead. 

The passing defense with our coverage by the safeties and the cornerbacks along with the efficient pass-rush makes us a terrible team to beat. Quarterbacks have had a 57.9% completion rate (2nd lowest in the NFL) for 12 Touchdowns (3rd lowest) and 13 interceptions (2nd highest), with an additional 20 sacks against the Browns. Tashaun Gipson (6 INT), Buster Skrine (4 INT) and Joe Haden in the backfield are uncompromising. Paul Kruger (6 Sacks) and Jabaal Sheard are also doing the job to defend against the pass.

Brian Hoyer

That good passing defense is what's mostly responsible for the +9 differential on turnovers. The safe Hoyer is the other responsible with 4 interceptions for 10 touchdowns.

Not as constant, but very efficient in the majority of games --excluding the three awful weeks that were 7, 8 and 9-- the running offensive game can be a terrific weapon. The three-headed running monster (Ben Tate, Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell) wins yards, scores touchdowns and allows for a great play-action passing game, at which Hoyer and his offensive line excel.

The comeback of Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon will permit to vary the plays even more and with more efficiency, even if the receivers did a great job, Andrew Hawkins leading the way.

Nothing is done yet

A 6-3 record is good, but the Browns are known for losing streaks recently, and a 2 or 3 losses in a row could dismantle a good effort in the first half of the season. 

The Houston Texans, our next opponents, are coming to Cleveland on week 11 with a negative record. But it would be a big mistake to underestimate them, especially since their strongest asset is also our biggest flaw. The running defense has been far from perfect, allowing much more than 4 yards per carry in most games. The Texans are 4th in the NFL in terms of yards per game. We'll have to step up on these plays and carry on with the good work to continue this season at the same rhythm.

I would be extremely disappointed if we'd finish the season with a 8-8 record I was hoping for in my pre-season blog post in August.

Go Browns!!

NFL season starting : Go Browns

I started getting interested in football --yes, I'll say football, even if I'm french-- a few years ago when they started broadcasting the Superbowl on french television. It was of course in the middle of the night, so it was hard to get up for school , or later for work, the next day. I didn't know much about the rules, but I was impressed with the tactical perfection of some plays.

Evidently, I did not become a Browns fan after watching a Superbowl. Back then, I didn't have any favorite team. I first heard of them on the Drew Carey Show, but had no idea who they were. Then a few years later, my Ohioan wife, or more specifically her parents introduced me to them. They are huge fans. Geographically closer to the Bengals, living near Dayton, their heart belong to the brown and orange team from Cleveland. 

Since then, I've been following their results, heartbreaking most of the time (4-12 last season after 7 losses in a row to finish 2013). But the fans and their enthusiasm about their team makes it a one of a kind. They remind me of my favorite soccer team, here in France (with mostly the same kind of results since 2007). Lens has a fan base that spread all over the country and more. Both sets of fans are often considered the most loyal ones and I'm proud to be a part of both.

I truly hope for an improvement in the results starting this year, even if the offensive team is far from the same level as the defensive one. But a 8-8 this season would be very welcome, and to build on that for the future. After all, even if they never appeared in the Superbowl since its creation, never say never. Lens, created in 1906 won its first (and only so far) french championship title in 1998. 

Go Browns! Go Lens!

Tribute to Friends, 10 years after The Last One

"There's nothing to tell!"

There's really nothing to tell that could explain how much I love that show. From that very first line, I was hooked. Of course, I didn't start watching it on September 22nd of 1994. I didn't even start watching it on April 4th of 1996, when it first aired in France. I actually started my obsession my first year after finishing high school. I went to college, away from home for the first time, I had a combo TV-VHS player and nothing to watch that could fill multiple hours. So I went to the store and tried to find something that could be worth spending the little money I had. I guess there was a good deal on Friends because even if I didn't know about it, I left with the first two seasons.

I devoured these two seasons more often than I probably should have. I didn't have the money to buy any additional ones, so much that after a few weeks, I knew by heart almost every line of these first forty-eight episodes. I was spending most of my time alone, as a young seventeen year old geek who didn't have his own computer, even less so access to Internet without going to a cybercafe, or the ability to make friends easily. Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross were my friends during that year.

I dropped my whole year in March and I came home with nothing to do and no new Friends episodes to watch. I had just discovered a new tool though, Kazaa. Now disappeared, that P2P file sharing application helped me quench my thirst for more Friends. I couldn't find any good French version of the episodes though. So I took a decision that still shapes my life today; I started downloading, very slowly (even ADSL then wasn't fast enough to have an episode in less than a few hours). I remember I was downloading, during the best times at about 50 Kb/s. 

I was so impatient, I was previewing the little I had downloaded of the episodes multiple times so I would know every intro by heart, in English, even if I sometimes didn't understand everything. I started downloading from Season 1, even though I already had them in French. This is how I most improved my English listening comprehension. Much more so than the years of English classes in middle school and then high school. I spent hours watching and rewatching every episodes I had. By then, Season 10 was almost finished in the US, but my downloading was too slow. I think when the last episode aired in May 2004, I was still midway through Season 6.

By now, I've probably seen each episodes at least twenty times. My wife, thankfully is also a big fan of the six friends. I bought the 10-season-DVD-set as soon as I could, about six or seven years ago. We watch it very regularly, sometimes even just as a background because we love to be with them. Each of these characters are unique, and the chemistry between them is something I've never seen since in a sitcom. 

Favorite Character

Even though I love all six of the Friends, my favorite has been Chandler from the beginning. He's the one I feel the closest to, I love his jokes, his sarcasm, and my wife often tells me after one of his lines: "It sounds like you could have said that!".

Favorite Episode

S03E02 - The One Where No One's Ready. It's hard to choose among all of the gems, but this one, set up as a play, one decor (Monica and Rachel's Apartment), one long twenty minute scene, with a frenetic rhythm and above all the friendly fight between Chandler and Joey makes it unforgettable to me.

Favorite Season

Season 5. The Season where Monica and Chandler hide their relationship is for me the high point of the whole show. Includes also the episode where Chandler can't make jokes, Ross moving in with Chandler and Joey, the Thanksgivings flashbacks, Ross flirting by talking about the smell of gas and more.

Now, tell me what are your favorite character, episode and season.

Streisand Effect : restaurant sues a bad review and gets bad publicity

In France, you're allowed to write a bad review about a restaurant in your blog, but apparently, you're not allowed to be referenced by Google too high, or you could get sued.

Photo used in the original post

This is what happened to Caroline Doudet, under the name "L'Irrégulière" on her blog Les Chroniques Culturelles, when she shared her disappointment about a dinner she had at Il Giardino in Cap Ferret, southwest of France. She deleted the blog post after the judgement, although it is still accessible on archive.org. For those who can't read French, the opinion column is titled "The place to avoid in Cap Ferret: Il Giordano", it is a chronological description of what happened that evening, from the moment they entered the restaurant until the check and finishes with "I incite you to blacklist [the restaurant] if you come in the area" followed by the address.

Her complaints in the whole post are numerous: bad service (with multiple examples), unfriendly and non-business-minded owner, low quality meals. Her points are backed by examples and we can feel the unpleasantness of the dinner through the words.

Ten months later, the disappointed customer got fined 2,500€ for "denigration" (1,500€ for the restaurant, 1,000€ for the justice fees) and constrained to change the title of her blog post (as I mentioned earlier, she decided to delete it altogether instead).

The restaurant, primarily but non-exclusively serving pizzas, thought they had won. That dreadful publicity, ranked on the first page on Google searches, was doomed to disappear. That was without thinking of the repercussions of that conviction. Media recounted the judgement. To nobody's surprise though, potential customers were not happy with the decision and started giving bad reviews on websites like TripAdvisor (with one listing it as Streisand favorite restaurant and grading it one star out of five a few days ago) or on Google Plus (average of 1.3 out of 5 after 194 reviews).

For those unaware, this is called the Streisand Effect. By trying to censor something they considered bad (reportedly, before the judgement, the page had been read less than 500 times), they created a negative internet buzz that reached hundreds of times that number.

A little piece of advice to the owner: the best response to that review was not to censor it, but to prove it was wrong by providing a good service that would call for good reviews. Free speech, even though attacked from all sides, is a concept that people are very attached to, and any blow towards it will probably have a negative effect on the attacker. I'm even sure that if the fine had been higher, Caroline Doudet wouldn't have had to pay it but the internet would have organized to help her raise that money.

This is one of the most noticeable market effect. I know I won't ever go eat in that restaurant. Without that judgement, it was possible. Thanks to the defense of free speech, I got to read that blog post that I would never have read otherwise. You'll never see me, Il Giardano.

French anti-Amazon law

Today came into effect a law here in France that is nicknamed "anti-Amazon law". Of course, the law doesn't cite Amazon, but the intentions behind the text was clearly and loudly announced to protect small bookstores against the international online competitor.

To have a full understanding of the story, a little background is probably needed, especially for those who have no knowledge of french laws about books. A few decades ago, politician were afraid that small bookstores would be destroyed by the competition of big malls that could sell books for a lower price. So, the government established something called "le prix unique du livre". It can be translated to "book's unique price". In effect, it means that when a book is first published, an advised price is settled, and it is forbidden to sell it for less than this price minus 5%. (Example: settled price 10€, nobody can sell it for less than 9.50€)

So, for a little more than 30 years, there's been no concurrence in France on book prices. As often though, the intended protection for bookstores never existed. The rate at which they disappeared is the same as in any other comparable country, where such laws didn't exist. The only everlasting effect was then that the lack of competition on book prices artificially keeps them at a higher level than in the US for instance: a net loss for the French reader.

Then Amazon came into our lives. The French version of the website still followed the local laws and applied the "no-less-than-5%" rule. To make their service appealing to their intended customers, they instated a free delivery for books, first on all order above twenty euros, then, a few years later, on all orders.

The same way it is anywhere else in the world, Amazon.fr is now a leader in the world of book selling in France. They achieve that by offering their customers what they want: prices as low as possible, an enormous catalog of items and a system of reviews and advice for finding your next purchase. Bookstores, for the most part, are still struggling.

Politicians then had a new great idea a year or so ago. "Let's try to slow down Amazon and bring back the readers to small bookstores." That's what lead to the new law voted two weeks ago. What the text of the law number 2014-779 of July 8 of 2014 (pdf) says -- my own translation:

 "When a book is delivered to the buyer and is not picked up directly in a bookstore, the selling price will be the price settled by the editor or the importing agent. The seller can remove 5% of this price off the delivery fee he chooses, without being able to make it a free delivery."

 A direct attack towards e-bookstores, Amazon in the first place. Today's reply by Amazon France probably surprised no one but the politicians behind that law. They announced on their website than sadly, they can't apply the 5% discount on the books they're selling, and they can't apply a free delivery to their orders. Instead, they decided to set the price to 0.01€ for the delivery.

Let's have a quick look at the actual effects of that law.

• Prices online have increased to reach the level they are in actual bookstores. 
• Delivery is still artificially free. 

For the customer, books more expansive, for Amazon, a raise in revenue of 5% on each order. Maybe the orders will decrease by a tiny amount, but overall, I think they'll gain money out of this. Because ordering books online is convenient, and that's nothing a bookstore can compete with.

The big error that bookstore owners and politicians make here is that they want to be on equal foot with Amazon. But that is simply impossible. Logistics and stocks are both in favor of the multinational company. That doesn't mean that physical bookstores have to disappear. But here's an advice, don't try to compete with Amazon with lobbying for new laws. Adapt!

http://librairie-expression.com/

I actually like bookstores. I like to wander in their alleys to try and find new novels to read. From what I've seen on the internet, a lot of people feel the same. I don't want them to disappear, and for that, there's one solution that the US bookstores should think of also. Adapt your offer. Specialize in certain genres, and personalize your offer, your advice. Adjoin your store to a coffee shop, a tearoom or just a reading room with a few baked goods. These are just the first ideas that pop in my head, but I think that's the way to go.

These are services that Amazon can't offer and they won't be able to compete with you.

The (Real) New Beginning

My new year's resolutions have turned out to be impossible to follow. Work, moving out, refereeing, and just daily life. I have spent the last six months not writing at all. January hasn't been my rebirth, surprisingly July has. In the middle of the FIFA World Cup, I started writing again.

I set myself a weekly routine that I will try to follow as much as I can, and that very blog post is part of it. Every Thursday, I will publish a new blog post on here, about anything that I will think is interesting enough to be shared. Other tasks are writing at least six hundred words on Mondays and Tuesdays, and maybe on Sundays. Fridays will be dedicated to the rewriting process for stories that need to be edited and rebuilt.

My Wednesdays will be about another one of my goal, still related to writing, but on another level. I'm creating a website that allow people to share their own Science-Fiction and Fantasy short stories online. The site will allow feedback in the means of commentaries and grades. I will first develop it in French, and depending on its success and my motivation, I probably will transpose it to English a few months after the French version's first launching.

That website has been on my mind for a while, and I think my new motivation to write and to develop that website has been brought by the purchase of my new laptop. I only had a desktop before, which always fulfilled me as a gamer, but the freedom a laptop gives you to work wherever you want was something I needed, I realize now.

I haven't mentioned what my Saturdays will be about: nothing. To be more precise, I won't impose myself anything to do of that kind on Saturdays. I will enjoy the company of my beautiful wife and my silly cat. If inspiration strikes me, I'm not stopping myself from writing or working on the website, but I think Saturdays will very much be about relaxing as much as possible.

I still have a job after all, I'm still a soccer referee, and a soccer player. I'm still a gamer, even though my implication on video games have decreased a lot during the past few years. But I'll always enjoy a good Starcraft, Football Manager or even an oldie like Baldur's Gate.

I mentioned my wife earlier, and I need to say that I am very proud that her photography business makes her people, even if it's not always easy, doing all she does in a foreign language, in a foreign country. You can see her work on her website and on Facebook. Amazing is one of the words that describe it. (Example on the left).

Enough ramble for tonight. See you next Thursday, or you can insult me if I don't write another post next week.

One resolution, a few goals for the new year

2013 was a very difficult year to go through. In spite of my new job, the financial struggles have paved our road with no breaks, and when the light could be seen at the end of the tunnel, some new unforeseen problems would come up. That ended up with a third flat tire of the year on December 31st.

I've decided that I won't let that slow me down in my writing. Years ago, I used to write regularly enough that I had a few short stories (some not that short) saved on my computer. I lost it all the hard way when my hard drive died and I had no backup of everything I had written.

2014 will be a rebirth. My resolution is to write daily. No matter on what subject, on what medium, for what purpose: a minimum of 600 words a day will be my requirement. These words can go towards posts for this blog, short stories or maybe even for bigger tales. This number can seem rather low, but it is only a minimum. The challenge will be not to miss a day, with my daily job, my personal life and my other activities - I think there of refereeing and reading.

Linked to that first quantitative goal, another will be to have at least one story finished per quarter. So, on December 31st of this year, I will need to have at the very minimum four full stories - beginning, middle and end.

Still related to the writing process, one blog post a week minimum. I want this blog to allow me to improve my English writing skills, and to express myself freely.

Finally, I want to challenge myself on another level. Creating full stories is good, but I want to submit at least one story to a professional editor - more likely a magazine or a website. For 2014, submitting will be enough. I guess acceptance will be a goal for 2015.

"Slowly, but steadily!" will be my motto.

Disorganized thoughts for the end of the year

This is going to be kind of a messy blog post. The end of the year is coming, and that week has been pretty busy and different due to the fact that I was off of work and that it was the week of my wife and I's wedding anniversary (the two being related since I took the week off because of the anniversary).

 So, for our big day, on Tuesday, we decided we would go to England. It was Dixie's first time there (due to struggles with the French administration to get her "Titre de séjour" delaying her first crossing of the Channel). We had a wonderful English breakfast in Dover after crossing in a car-ferry. Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was a real experience (not saying more about it...).



We then took the road to Leeds Castle in Maidstone. We arrived in a deep fog that cleared out toward the end of our visit. The gardens and the atmosphere there were really enjoyable. Being a big kid, I ended the visit with a life-size maze.

We finished with a long walk and shopping in Canterbury. We stopped in a tearoom wondering how to end our stay in the city where we met an older couple. The lady was from New Zealand and and the man from Boston. They suggested us a few places to go and see and when the man had to leave, the woman stayed and entertained Dixie with English conversation.







Overall, we had a perfect stay in great landscape and cities and I think our  two-year anniversary was a success.

The rest of the week was filled with paperwork (health insurance), reading a lot (I finished the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, while still reading A Clash of Kings and La Révolution des Fourmis) and Dixie had a Christmas photoshoot. You can check some of the amazing photos out at this address. You can also visit her website. It's worth having a look at it.

To finish on a sports note, Liverpool annihilated Tottenham and Lens won its first game away in more than three months, so that was a good weekend. Also, I had a physical test on Saturday (3200 meters, switching between 150 meters at fairly high speed in 30 seconds followed by very slow pace of 50 meters in 45 seconds). I did that test on a 400 meters track, but it was very slippery and I slid at the end of my third lap. I'll have another try in January. I also reffed a women's soccer game today, and Dixie said these women would beat up most of my teammates if we were playing against them. I can't say I disagree much.

Anyway, that was my rambling for the day. The three photos at the beginning are of course taken by my beautiful, and I incite you once more to go check out her website and facebook page.

I love you, Dixie! Happy two-year anniversary!

Why I am a libertarian

I have not always called myself a libertarian. To be honest, a few years back I didn't even know the word. I have always felt a strong admiration for the concept of freedom.

I've been raised in a far from wealthy family, who struggled every month to make ends meet. Historically, the whole of my family has also always leaned to the left side of politics, sometimes very left. In certain ways, I follow them. In many others I don't. Libertarianism is neither left nor right.

I had preconceived beliefs that led me to doubt the fact that freedom could be the most efficient response to some problems in the world. Over the years, after hours and hours of reading, studying, questioning, I am deeply convinced of the efficiency of liberty.

In addition to that, on a philosophical note, I believe freedom to be the absolute highest moral value to fight for in the world. I'm now going to list three illustrative examples that are at the core of my libertarianism, among tens of others that I might expose in another post someday.

1. Freedom of Speech

Strange it is that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free speech but object to their being "pushed to an extreme", not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case.

 John Stuart Mill

I don't know anyone who would say that Freedom of Speech is a bad thing. But I've heard and seen so many times comments like "Of course freedom of speech is important, but hateful Nazi websites should be shut down". If Freedom of Speech is not complete and unconditional, then it doesn't exist.

If you only advocate Freedom of Speech for the opinions that you support, you don't advocate it at all. I despise Nazi people as much as anyone ever could (in addition to having awful racial beliefs, they are huge defenders of an all powerful state), but I would never censor anything such a person would have to say by law. That doesn't mean that I endorse their beliefs. If an opinion of that type were to be published on any post of my blog in the comment section, I would delete it. I don't want to relay these comments on my blog. And that is in perfect agreement with Freedom of Speech. This is my blog. If I decide I don't want to see something appear on it, it's my right to delete it. I don't want to be associated with it. If that same person creates their own blog to publish these concepts though, I would have nothing to say.

2. No laws can abolish a contract between consenting adults

The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.

Lord Melbourne

The key word in that quote is "whole". Government has no other duties than these two.

Nowadays, politics are trying to manage everyone's life. The main argument for that is usually to "protect" people. Most of the time though, it's to protect them from themselves. It is NOT any government's job. There's so many examples of that type. Most of them seem very good at first sight. Let's take minimum wages laws: higher wages obviously lead to people with a better financial situation. If the wages are high because of contracts agreed on both parts, that's exactly what it means. Sadly, if wages are raised by law only, there come the multiple drawbacks.

First, a legal minimum wage means that all the activities that are worth less than the foregoing wage will simply disappear. Out of the legal setting, that is. Moonlighting will expand instead. People who have no skills that are worth the legal wage still need the money. Second, an increase in a minimum wage by law that doesn't reflect in an increase in productivity only leads to one thing: inflation. The employer that needs to legally increase wages with no increase in productivity will reverberate his higher costs on his prices. Conclusion: some people (the less skilled) can't find a legal job anymore, minimum wage workers are better paid, but inflation made overall prices increase.

3. Still protecting you from yourself : Drugs

If the government can’t keep drugs away from inmates who are locked in steel cages, surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, drug-tested, strip-searched, X-rayed, and videotaped – how can it possibly stop the flow of drugs to an entire nation?

Ron Crickenberger

This quote only shows the utterly inefficiency of the War on Drugs. That's the utilitarian argument for the legalization of drugs. Personally, I think drug should be legalize even if the War on Drugs was efficient.

I don't do drugs. Never have, never will. Personal choice, not because it's illegal. If drugs (and I mean all drugs) were legalized, I still wouldn't take it. And I'm sure that most people are the same way. But even if some did... What's wrong with that? You can morally disapprove all you want, a drug user only harms himself. It's his choice. He's responsible for that choice. If someday, he harms someone else, either on drugs or not, he'll be responsible for it. How many people are in prison and have never harmed anyone else but themselves?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are just a few small examples of what I believe in and why I define myself as a libertarian. I am open to discussion. The comment section is there for you.

On my golden bookshelf

Since I was a little kid, I have been an avid reader. I always had a book in my hands. Sometimes more than one. Everywhere my parents would bring us, a family event, a day at the beach, a visit to the doctor, I would be seen reading.

In my first blog post about my taste in literature, I decided I would make a short list of my favorite novels or series of novels. It won't be exhaustive, or even close to being exhaustive, but I believe you will learn to know me a little better by learning about my tastes.

One of Agatha Christie's best work in my opinion. A "huis-clos" (I'm french after all) with 10 characters in the beginning, a number that quickly thins down as the murders pile up. Who is the killer? Very entertaining. I first read it when I was around 15.

Philip K. Dick was an amazing writer with a twisted mind. The Man in the High Castle was the first Alternate History story I ever read. And what a first! Nazis and Japanese have won World War II and divided the US into two territories. Somewhere though, a mysterious man wrote a book. It narrates the victory of the Allies against the Axis...

Mind Vampires are real. They love to play. The world is their chessboard. Anyone can be a pawn. From Nazi Germany to 1980s Georgia, these "vampires" are restless, amoral and extremely violent. Can regular human being overcome these superbeings?



First item of the Mars Trilogy, Red Mars describes the trip to Mars and the first steps of the colonization of the red planet. This novel is a highly acclaimed hard science piece of art. Kim Stanley Robinson offers us one of the biggest dreams of humanity in written words.


As I said, that list is far from being complete. It's a first insight into my tastes in storytelling. Some other books will come in blog posts to come.

What are your favorite novels?

Atheist intolerance

I decided to write this blog post when I saw this tweet :

Hey guys today isnt the day to be an atheist prick who feels the need to attack anyone and everyone saying god bless America.Just wait a day
— Libertarian Comic (@funlibertarian) September 11, 2013

I am, in fact, an atheist; I couldn't agree more with this tweet though. I can't stand bigotry. Above all though, atheist bigotry is what ticks me off the most.

Even though I was raised a catholic, I always was an atheist at the core. My mom had to force me to go to church, and to make it go faster, I was bringing books to read during Mass (I was a huge Agatha Christie's fan when I was around 10). I know it can be seen as disrespectful to believers, but I was only a kid, forced to be there.

I was very resentful to my mom about that. I still am a little, deep down, but I understand her will to raise me the way she thought was best, as she was before by my grandparents. I actually enjoyed learning about Catholicism. I just didn't want to be part of the folklore. Since then, I also studied a little bit of a few other religions. I actually enjoy Theology. I like parables and metaphors. That's all they mean to me.

Being a proud atheist doesn't mean I disrespect other people's beliefs. In addition to being an atheist, I am also a libertarian: this means that, as long as you don't try to impose your beliefs or your life preferences on me, do and live as you wish.

Some people might think "Is it then forbidden to mention your religion?" Absolutely not. There's a very big difference between "You should believe (or live like) this because I think this is the right thing to do" and "This is what I believe in (or how I live) and I'll explain why". One is a clear attempt to convert the other while the other one is just an explanation shared to other people. Of course, that explanation could convince someone to change their ways and there's no problem with that.

Someone saying "Have a blessed day!" or "God bless America!" is not an attack to your freedom of religion. In their mind, that's probably one of the nicest thing they could say. They don't force you to say it. They don't force you to believe it. They just say it. Attacking them for that is being a prick. I'll always prefer a nice believer over a prick atheist.

I am an atheist, and I always will be. I will not try to convert you to atheism if you are a christian, a muslim or even an agnostic. If you want though, I can explain to you why I am that way; just ask me!

Allez Lens !

I came home a few hours ago from a soccer game in Lens, my favorite team. The game in itself was not the best, but they won 1-0 and confirmed their leadership of French "Ligue 2" with 4 wins and a draw in 5 games. More than what happened on the field though, the continuous support by the fans, the intensity of the cheering and the volume of the singing during the whole game are what makes Lens so special.

The team is just starting its third season in a row in Ligue 2. Needless to say, for a club like this one, three seasons below the highest level that is Ligue 1 is an eternity. But tonight, there was more than 30,000 people inside the stadium to represent what we call here the "twelfth man".

Other teams are impressed to come play in that arena. They know that they will have to play against more than eleven adversaries. The most ferocious and fearsome of all will litterally surround them during ninety minutes.

I love that idea. Keep going, supporters. Help your team go back in the elite of French soccer. They can do it, and you deserve it.

"Allez Lens !"

Introduction

I decided to start a blog a while ago. I just never took the time to actually do it. As it turns out, it's my birthday today, and I figured it was as good as any other day to finally give it a try.


My name is Kevin Martin, I'm 27. French guy married to my amazing American wife, Dixie, photographer. We live in the North of France, where I was born and grew up. I work there in a nuclear power plant.

My first motivation to open a blog like that is to improve my English writing skills. As I mentioned, this is not my native language and the regular practice can only make me better. Of course, there's a reason why for that: I am a writer. Aspiring writer, to be more precise. I haven't had anything published yet anywhere. I haven't even submitted anything. But that idea sprang up in me a long time ago, and the need has only been growing since then.

A few years back, I wrote a few short stories, in French. They were science-fiction stories, probably not very good (I lost them since). I absolutely love SF and Fantasy. Sadly, the market for SF is extremely small in France. And that's without reducing it to short stories or novellas. This motivated me to start writing in English and have access to a bigger market (and probably more competitive too). Competition doesn't scare me though. I know my stories will probably be rejected about a thousand times before I even have a real feedback as to how I could improve them. The reward is just even more sweet when one of them is finally accepted somewhere. 

This blog won't be entirely dedicated to my "writing career" though. It will be a way for me to clear my mind; I will also write about sports, mostly soccer, about books and movies I enjoyed (or not), about science, my everyday life, politics (I'm a libertarian), maybe even philosophical wonderings, etc. Anything that I will think can be worth sharing actually.

So enough with this short introduction, I'll leave it there for now. I'll conclude with one of my favorite quotation by Voltaire, that is actually apocryphal, but which sums up my position about Freedom of Speech :

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."