Blog — Pacific Bohemian

On delegation

I’ve been looking for my Second Mountain for a while. Years ago I wanted to be able to live and work from wherever-with-an-internet-connection in the world, for however long I wanted to. That desire (see this other post on dreams) was sparked by Envato’s then-forward-thinking policy of allowing its employees to work remotely up to three months a year. It started with two stints of such lifestyle in 2016, then another one in 2017. Looking backwards, this was for me the first execution of a years-long plan to become fully geographically independent.

guillaume hammadiDecember 25, 2022

On dreams

Life is too short to be living someone else’s dream.

- Hugh Hefner

My life is filled with little quotes that I get back to on a regular basis. I love languages (programming or not), I love witty puns, word plays, and the likes.

I found the above one years ago, I don’t even remember in which context. Its author, the late Hugh Hefner, founder of infamous magazine Playboy, is not someone I’m particularly familiar with. But this line, though, has been resonating with me since I first heard it.

guillaume hammadiDecember 9, 2022

It's all relative

Avocado, with a banana for scale

- The Internet

I love the Internet. It’s where I work. it’s where I create. It’s where I get entertained. It’s where I communicate. Saying that it has helped define my life for the last twenty years is an understatement.

A year or so ago, I stumbled on yet another weird meme, where everything was compared to a banana, to give an idea of scale. I found the idea silly, but at the same time illuminating.

Everything is actually relative, and that makes reflecting on where we come from when basing our points of view absolutely essential. Incidentally, changing perspective from times to times helps with understanding the people around us better.

guillaume hammadiDecember 2, 2022

A square-patterned duvet cover

Emptiness, empty space, void, a clear slate. These are key concepts to me.

Over the last twenty years or so, I’ve purchased one variant or another of the exact same duvet cover. It’s made out of 100% cotton, it’s got pressure buttons to close it at the bottom, it’s covered in a coloured square pattern.

You can likely still find it at your local Swedish furniture company. No, actually, you can for sure. I just got a new set. It’s called Brunkrissla.

guillaume hammadiNovember 22, 2022

The important is to dance

Take life with light-heartedness, follow the flow, and don’t forget to have fun.

guillaume hammadiNovember 17, 2022flow, dance

What's in my bag

“Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”

- Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

This is very true, and something my ever-changing, commitment-averse, The grass is always greener on the other side self could spend some time reflecting on. Anyway, today I felt more like writing about what else than myself I usually take with me.

guillaume hammadiMay 18, 2018

Pros and cons of Work and travel (at the same time)

Envato, the company I work for as a software engineer when I'm not out on shootings (precisely 90% of my normal work week, when I don't shoot at and for Envato, but that's a whole other story, worth a blog post by itself probably) has this awesome program called Work From Anywhere, or WFA.

guillaume hammadiFebruary 27, 2017software development, digital nomad, remote work

Behind the scenes of an old photoshoot

I was recently asked by a very good Kiwi friend of mine, Rosie Percival who also happens to be a kick-ass yoga practitioner and teacher in Wellington, NZ, how I took the photo set that's the base of my yoga gallery. A friend of hers was trying to get into photography.

guillaume hammadiFebruary 20, 2017photography, gear, yoga

Hike and Rum in Reunion Island

While I was waiting fo a visa sponsorship to happen between two jobs in Australia, I decided to give a visit to my father who, rather unexpectedly, decided to spend the month of July away from French Metropole (how unlikely of him). So here I go, for a week mid-distance between Australia and France (Metropole, as the Réunion Island is technically France.

guillaume hammadiJuly 15, 2015travel, landscape

Snowboard and colours in Japan

After years of dreaming of the famous Japanese powder snow, I finally made it to this incredible country. Mathieu, Sylvain, Jérôme and myself made it to the Sunrise Country for 3 weeks of amazing landscapes, history, food, Onsen (the traditional hot baths), and, yes, plenty of powder snow.

guillaume hammadiFebruary 28, 2015

[email protected]