Definitve back trip... for now

This is it ! I'm heading back to France tomorrow, after these three crazy months. Definitely one of the greatest experiences in my short life, which allowed me to see another facet of blueEnergy, giving a different perspective to the question : how does it work ? Thus, after this rafting trip in Oregon, which was by the way probably the best way i could have ended my stay, this week's work has been for me mostly cleaning my mess. Also being sure that the work i've done may be somewhat useful for someone in the future. Therefor a lot of documentation, enhancement. I'm leaving hoping that i brought something to the organization.
On the hand of San Francisco actuality, Alex went in vacation (in France), Ben went back to school, and shows up only on Fridays, and Rachael doesn't show up at all anymore. The office seems strangely empty...
Guillaume, who headed back to Nicaragua yesterday to face the tough reality, had a couple CEO meetings with Mathias, like five year plan. The kind of meeting i feel pretty useless for...
The first round of interviews for a new assistant is closed, and it seems like the competition is hard. The definitve choice should be made in the next few weeks.
Here we are, this is the end. That's probably my last post on this blog...at least for now, something's telling me this is not the last i hear of blueEnergy ;)

Why the hell ???

Why the hell did my computer crash two days before my internship viva ??? I didn't care that much about it, but i must admit that it was pretty convenient to have my personal computer, moreover with a french keyboard - which allowed my coutrymen to understand what i wrote, and to notice my perfect spelling. But the most important is that i've able to back-up all my data, after having taken a great pleasure in separating each piece of this devilish machine that drove me crazy for weeks.
You may ask yourself how do i work now. Well, Mathias had a sneaky plan in his sleave. He took out from the Ali BablueEnergy cave two iBook Clamshell - a model that makes its owners feel reaaaaally old - one of them which didn't work at all, while the other one had a broken screen. Thus i applied the appropriate surgery, and now use a frankenstein clam to complete my work. At least, only when Rachael is here and uses bE computer, which is gonna be abolished soon, and that brings me to my second existential question.
Why the hell does Rachael quit ??? She seemed to like being at bE, but this is obviously an overwhelming for artistic background girl. This happens at a rather bad time, since bE is investigating for a new work space, we'll next to investigate for a new assistant... And Mathias already wants me to take her place and stay all summer in SF. Having done my presentation this week, my internship is now only between bE and me, and my contract is over next week. I reckon this is time for me to ask for a raise ! 50% should be enough...
Otherwise, from a touristic point of view, i'll visit Alcatraz tomorrow, which might be fun even if the trip lost of its appeal since i learned that there was actually no longer prisonners in it. Why the hell ???

What's up doc ?

What shall i say...I'm not very inspired these days. My anti-spam script doesn't work in automatic mode and that drives me crazy ! Otherwise Mathias asked me to make an implementation plan for Netsuite. Intern project manager... That shows you a bit how much you have to be a ninja in blueEnergy. So i have a little bit of pressure these days, but since this morning, i'm extra relax, because i've been accepted to the UTC, a french engineering school quite famous i must say, and this calms down. An issue that i will not have to care about anymore. That only leaves the presentation next week and... No, i'll not start making a list, it's gonna demoralize me.
Otherwise we went hiking this weekend with Mathias in a park in the north of San Francisco. Gorgeous landscape with a great view on the Pacific. My legs still remember it.
Well, i've spoken, next post i'll wait for something interesting to say.

Back (again) in San Francisco

Well, it starts being a lot of come backs...But i can't do anything about it, i'm just doing what i'm told. And last thursday, i've been told "Get in the car, we're leaving to Eugene, Oregon". And here we are after an ten hour ride. A damn beautiful state, Oregon, even if i didn't expect it to be so rainy... Reaching such a point that the sun's hidden at the very second we crossed the border. Ah green landscapes and wet climate remind me the Picardie, France, where i grew up. Nevertheless, we had a great weather for the ceremony day. Because yes we went there for the wedding of a friend of Mathias'. So four days fastly passed, with again a lot of encounters, and we're already back in SF. Without Mathias who flew away to Cuba.
I'm now alone in the office most of the time. So what do i do ? Audio editing for blueEnergy ! Dunno if i told you but when i was in Nicaragua, Maité Niel, one of the volunteers, gave an interview by phone on the french radio France Inter. So i made a version going to the essentials, by cutting all the gibberishes and the stupid replies of the presenter. For the interested ones, here it is. And now i'll have to start working seriously on my internship report, because my teacher wants it on June 5th...Too much work kills the work.

Ah, the Bay Area...

Back since a few days in this beautiful city of San Francisco, i quickly got back the american way of life : donuts, starbucks and subway. The weather's been nice with us on our come back, indeed we had a couple days over 90°F without no cloud, but it didn't stay long and the fog came back fastly. Definitely a pretty weird weather in here...But that was for us a smooth transition from Bluefields climat.
Yesterday occured a major event in San Francisco : Bay to Breakers. A freaking race across the city where about 1% of the participants are actually running, while the rest of them are walking costumed, drinking and doing tortillas fight. So i've been able to meet some of Mathias' former classmates and see the city boiling with these hundreds of thousands crazy people. Hard to get back to work this morning, but every issue can be solved with coffee, it's just a matter of quantity.
Talking about issues and work (it's funny how well these two words are matching) i've starded to seriously learn about Netsuite SuitScript, and this for the following reason : as the one receiving all the emails from people asking for info or support, i quickly realized that most of them are actually trying to sell viagra or gucci and rolex replicas. Thus i'm trying to find a solution to delete these spams automatically. I'm re-discovering programming joy...

Noticias de Nicaragua

Well, it's been too long, now it's time for me to write something on this page, just to make sure people don't believe i have nothing to talk about. Actually, that's the opposite, i've been so busy these days that i didn't find time to write. I'll thus try to make a summary of the facts of the week, and try to forget the least i can. So where do i start from ?First, about Netsuite, we had all the metings planed, and knowledge went from those who know how to do it to those who know what to do with it. Now with a bit of data in the system, we're going to be able to start doig interesting things. While i'm on the IT topic, we also talked about the creation of a database to handle the surveys in the communities, about the members, their gear and how they use it, but there is still some shadow areas on it, and that's why we called an expert, who works for Oracle i think.
And now, some general news about the actuality of bE in Bluefields. Thursday, the Inatec staff went to the casa bE to attend a presentation of the CERCA project : a building which would be cosntructed inside the school, representing the spirit of bE, energy autonomy, rain water filtration, and among others a bunch of hotel rooms, big dinig rooms, art galery. The aim is to promote Bluefields as the small scale capital of the energy, and to develop an ecotourism. That was also a chance to show them the brand new operator manual which will be dealt in the communities.
Then arrived the film crew : Xavier, David and Quentin, three french guys who're coming to shoot a documentary on the bE action, and now they're following us in all our adventures.
Busy ady Saturday since we started early in the morning with Bluefields cemetery where Colette made a speech as a tribute to Miss Nora, the woman who worked with her on her Rama language project, passed away in 2002. By the way there is an awesome view of the Inatec turbines from the cemetery. Then gathering at the Inatec for the ceremony ending the week of training of the operators i told you about, and where they got their diploma. Afterward ,each of them has been interviewed by the film crew.
To end the day, a little party was necessary, but not to long, because the day after we woke up at 7am to go to Rama Cay, a trip organized by Colette to offer another tribute to Miss Nora, by doing two presentations, one in the school in the morning, and another one in the church in the afternoon. A chance for me to re-discover this little island where people are piling up on each other, and to get back completely soggy after the trip in panga, by foot because the cabs are still on strike here, and the strikers are slashing the tires of those who would rather work.
This is gently leading us until today, when i stayed in front of my pc all the day, to change a little bit. That's already the end on this trip, and the day after tomorrow, we're going to Managua to get back to San Francisco. It's crazy how fast passed these eleven days, but that's not like i fi were going back home :)

Presentation at the Inatec

Today there was a big meeting at the Inatec for an historic presentation for blueEnergy, marking the beginning of class sessions given to local people for a clean and efficient use of the systems when bE staff is away. Thus a representative of each community within bE has a system came, and with them plus the employees and the volunteers, it's not been too hard to fulfill the classroom lend to us. Very interesting presentations, touching a wide panel of topics, from energy with a upcase E in general to the systems themselves, crossing safety signs and importance of accounting. The aim is to start getting autonom the communities owning a system.


It was also an opportunity for me to re-discover the Inatec and bE workshop which has changed a lot since the last time i came. Much more room and much more organization, and one more turbine.


Also some prototypes of a water filter designed by the bE crew. Nobody ventures to drink te water yet, but that's a pretty good start. If you'r interested, i invite you to read Stephanie's blog where she's explaining the different steps of the process to create such a filter.

Back to Bluefields

And everything has changed ! At least about blueEnergy, because the rest kept it the same way. Thus arrival yesterday at 3pm after a chaotic trip in one of those 20-sit plane where you feel like the pilot drank too much beer. In the new casa blueEnergy, the former small crew became a volunteer army, and in the backyard, there are like fifteen people working on Guillaume's house building, despite the hot sun of Sunday afternoon.


Construction is going pretty fast : difference between 4 and 10pm was already impressive, i can't imagine how it was the day before. Mathias and I are thus sleeping at Guillaume's, in what you now can decently call a house.
Today i installed an ethernet wire crossing all the place, to bring some Internet at G's. Longer and more exhaustong than it may appear... These days, a good part of the volunteers are working all day long on the creation of a powerpoint for some presentation happening in the next few days. So i can hardly gather interested people for my little lesson on NetSuite items. During this time i keep on learning by myself and try to collect potentially interesting information. SuiteScript APIs (javascript libraries) which are offered allow to manipulate all the data in the system. They look powerful and with multi-purpose, opportunity to investigate...

Help me !

Here we are, back in our little noisy office on Mission St, to start working seriously on Netsuite. First, creation of a beautiful email template to respond our dear visitors in lack of information or support. But in fact, i spend most of the time on the help center which is, i must confess, one of the most complete and useful i've never seen. Just one issue, half the features explained there are not available with our licence...I seem like learning a lot of things for nothing, but Mathias is negociating to obtain us these advanced features.

The place to go when you're fed up with USA

Well, i've been in this city for now almost a month, thus i think the time has come for me to make a small presentation of it. So, San Francisco is a little conglomeration of a million and a half inhabitants, and the dominant city of the Bay Area. A city certainly much varied, since even if each community lives in a separate neighborhood, the borders are permeable and the sidewalks are colored. With its 200,000 Chinese, and its 100,000 Latinos (and i don't talk about the gays, for whom i have no valuation), it seems to be the shelter of all the minorities which are fed up with the "Far West" spirit of the USA. A heritage following it for a long time, amongs others, the 60s. A place where each one can hope to display his differences, and live like anybody while looking like nobody. But don't imagine things, San Francisco is not easy to live everyday. First, most of the time, in the morning and the evening it looks like that :


Lots of fog coming from the bay and the Pacific ocean. So to speak, weather's not nice when fog is there, and you're wet just by walking through this suspended humidity. But these days weather is kind and is offering us sunny week ends. Nevertheless, no matter the day, there is invariably a wind that would blow a cow away !
Another thing you've got to get used to here is this :

Hills, hills, and hills again (did i tell you about the hills ?) You feel like puking each time you take a cab, so imagine when you've to get back by feet. And the worst is that i live on the top of one of these. Not surprising that i'm exhausted each time i come back from work.
But complain is over, now let's talk about this house where i live. That's the home of a lovely family, who's putting me up while i'm in SF, and will go by Sam & Jane afterwards. This couple have three sons, and all of them left the house in order to study in each corner of the USA. So much room ! Indeed, the house is pretty big. So life's cool with me these times, and we can't say that i met the average american couple. He's psychiatrist, she's photographer, and it's harder for me to follow their conversation than the one of a lambda guy in the street. All of this to say that i could have met a thousand times worst, and thus i thank by the way my aunt Colette to have such nice friends.
Apart from that, what's up in California ?? Today, third and last training session on Netsuite. I trully think this consultant was a good investment because she permitted us to focus on issues we might not have been able to see on our own. I'm not saying that i became an expert, but now the implementation should go pretty much faster. Anyway, i have no choice, since we fly to Nicaragua on satursay, where the volunteers are waiting for me to transmit them my brand new knowledge (i don't know if they're really waiting for me, but anyway this is why i'm going there).
Otherwise, big victory for the SF Giants on friday, night 3 to nothing, in spite of a slow game with no hit at all before the 5th inning. However, that was a interesting game and a pretty cool night with the usual crew of Craig's friends. By the way, the Giants' ballpark is really impressive !

Netsuite meeting, 1st one

Gasp ! What a busy day today... Metting from 8am to 5pm with some consultant who blueEnergy pays a small fortune to show us the way to an efficient implementation of Netsuite.
That was trully exhausting but now i've got some concrete stuff on what and how.
This is when real work begins !
But tomorrow morning i stay in my bed because we're reiterating on monday and tuesday...I try to avoid thinkin about it, but actually it could be worst since we have an emperor's meeting room, with big flat screen and swinging chairs. And Lorelei's cupcakes to bring some happiness :)
I'll just need much more rest during the week end and much more coffee during next week.

Brief introduction of the office

Today i'm gonna introduce you my work place : the suite 200, 1360 Mission Street. A set of little offices, box style, only used by non-profit organizations. Associations of dancers, tailors, architects, most of them are artists and thus don't have a fixed schedule.
The walls between each box don't reach the ceiling, leading to a big lack of privacy : we ear everything, from the phone call in the box on the right to the coughing guy's death throes on the left.
You can see underneath a bad photomontage, which is certainly very ugly, but shows you our workspace.
I'm using myself the brand new Ikea desk in the center of the picture. The box is about 15 feet long by 10 feet wide, and contains from 1 (me) to 3 people (me + Mathias + Rachael). Rachael is Mathias' executive assistant, she's doing a half time job and what i understood is that she's in charge of relieving Mathias of some administrative work.
Besides, we potentially have another guy who'll come in the few next days, Yaniv, a new volunteer from Stanford university. We then would be four people in the office, what should be very funny.
Well now that i've talked about work, i can show you some pictures of what i did yesterday afternoon. That was in Golden Gate Park, and what was supposed to be a concert was rather an artistic gathering. At the beginning there was like ten drummers, then about fifty musicians came during all the afternoon. In a complete freedom, each one was able to join with his instrument. There was, following my personal valuation, more than 100,000 people gathered for the event. Thus i've been able to discover a new face of San Francisco which you don't meet downtown.









Otherwise, here are some pictures from the Toga Party i told you about. I know we look ridiculous, but at least EVERYBODY looked ridiculous :)

Sunny traffic jam

Yesterday Mathias' great return, who picked me up at the office, cape on the airport, in order to get some blades shiped right from Nicaragua. It's not easy in the United States to grab a crate coming from a foreign country, above all when this country is Nicaragua (Don't you worry, this is just some AK-47 from the revolution...).
Arrived at the warehouse, we realized that there was a mistake on the check order : "Foreign Air" instead of "Forward Air". That stresses Mathias out who was already thinking about the return to San Francisco. But before it mays cause any issue, the lady who received us tells that we need to go to the us customs in order to make some paper signed, and gives us directions to go there. We painfully arrived to the customs building, and just for :
-Hi, we want to recover a crate come from Nicaragua.
-What's in it ?
-Pieces of wood.
-Ok (signing the paper).Good Bye.
Well...Back to the warehouse thus, and stress about the check comes back too. Would be too bad to do a round trip just for four letters. But the lady doesn't seem to pay attention, fulfills the paperwork, and tells us to wait outside, which we hurry to do. Once the crates grabbed, we try to fasten them securely on the car, waiting for the woman to run out of the building, holding the check, at anytime. "Is that keeping ? Ok, let's get the f*** out of here !"
Cape on Berkeley's College at Richmond, where blueEnergy owns a workshop. But this is the time when things go hard. Indeed, after all these adventures, it is already 3pm, and traffic increases on the freeway...til we get stuck. An hour to make the few miles to the workshop. Sun's heating, and gas' getting into the car by the open trunk...In short, we arrive at last on the wonderful college's territory where i visit the workshop which is much bigger than Bluefields one. Too bad there's nobody to work in it. We set down the crates, and go back to Berkeley where we stop at a friend of Mathias', Christian,who seems like doing pretty much for blueEnergy. Exchange of a few words around a beer, then return to San Francisco, because it's already 5:30. Ahhhhhh it's moving faster this way. So many adventures just for those two crates, it took us all the afternoon. Then we stayed half an hour at the office, til Mathias has been yelled by his wife who wanted to see him at house RIGHT NOW ! It looks hard to be married.
In short, a really busy day even if we have not been doing so many things :)

When luxury calls you

Monday happened some important presentation at the Four Seasons hotel of San Francisco. It was organized by both SalesForce.com and Google, in order to announce the melting of their applications. Thus now for instance you can send a message using Gmail from SalesForce, and conversely, when you modify your schedule under Google Calendar, it's automatically updated on SalesForce. Many new features which have no interest for the most of you guys, me neither ;)
I was there because Mathias asked it to me, but actually it was really cool. A wonderful meal, made by some chef, for free in a luxury hotel, a meeting with GoogleMan, but above all for the very first time in my life, a real badge with my name written on it. It makes me proud, and feel a VIP soul growing in me.

Reggae night !

That was thursday night, at Ashkenaz, Berkeley. A pretty good show animated by some reggae great, the famous Don carlos. Enchanting voice, crowded place, and lots of Red Stripe (a Jamaican lager), how can you ask for more ? All of this with colleagues : Mathias (who's rather a boss than a colleague), Lorelei (Mathias' wife, who's definitely not a colleague) and Rachael (i've not introduced her yet, but i'll do in another post). Actually, she's the only one who can claim to be a colleague, but do a trainee have colleagues ? Anyway, that was a great show.
I already hear jealous people yellin' : "this guy is in the US in order to work, and he's just telling us about his parties !" Be patient... I just can write a single post per day (which is pretty honorable i think) because i must translate it from french into english... So that was the event of the last day. Next time i'll talk about the place where i work and the people i'm working with (this is going to be fast). Perhaps even i'll tell you about what exactly i'm working on for interested people (only if i've the time). But right now is week-end so this is probably for monday ;)
I'll also tell you about the party Mathias wants me to go tonight : toga Party ! (where everybody come dressed up in a sheet, roman style...These americans have some weird ideas, but anyway this may be fun)

Arrival in San Francisco

Let me introduce myself in a nutshell : Philibert Maniez, 18 years old, completing a 2-year full course degree in IT. In order to get my diploma, i'm doing a internship at blueEnergy for the next three months, and as the title tells it, i am with Mathias in his San Francisco's office.
I arrived in this lovely city a couple of days ago, and it's not been easy. Indeed, american customs kept me like half an hour in their place of Chicago's airport, just long enough to make me miss my flight to SF. Everything just for "Here's your passport and your beautiful stamp. Have a nice day !". So my journey took 4 hours more than expected, and i arrived at 12:30 am local time in SF, where Mathias was waiting for me desperately. But as the teacher in charge of me during my internship well said, "Missing planes is part of fun".