Jp Valery — Now

What was I up to on January 9th, 2026

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:00:00 GMT

The second half of 2025 was busy.

Work took me to Vegas for React Conf, then to Florence for Resend's annual offsite. I extended the Europe trip to spend some time in France with family—always good for the soul. End of January, I'm heading to San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

Aerobatics training has ramped up. I can now perform loops, rolls, and more complex maneuvers like the clover leaf (chaining 4 rolls, pulling up to 5G) and the Avalanche (a snap roll at the top of a loop). It's intense and I love it. I'm also considering adding Multi-Engine and Floats ratings to my license this year.

Over the summer, I biked almost 1,500km, including a 100km single-day ride. That was a first.

Still chipping away at a side project to help pilots offset their carbon emissions—hoping to finally ship it in Q1 with some help from Claude Code.

What was I up to on July 3rd, 2025

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Since December 2024, a lot has shifted in my world.

After four years at Customer.io, I decided it was time for a new challenge. I joined Resend as a Customer Success Engineer, stepping into a role that blends deep technical problem-solving with the customer focus I've always thrived on. The transition has been energizing, and it’s been exciting to work with a team that moves fast and builds with care.

On the aviation front, I earned my night rating earlier this year—flying under the stars never gets old. I’ve also started training in aerobatics. It’s a humbling experience to be pushed (literally and figuratively) in new ways, but incredibly rewarding.

I shipped a project called FLAPS, a small utility designed to help simplify and automate flight planning and related workflows. It’s been fun scratching a personal itch and seeing it resonate with other pilots. I’m also working on a new side project aimed at helping pilots offset their carbon emissions—blending my love of flying with a growing sense of responsibility around sustainability.

Travel has picked up again. I had the chance to visit both Barcelona and Iowa City for work—two very different but equally interesting experiences. I also spent a week in Las Vegas to celebrate one of my best friends' 40th birthday, which was a perfect mix of chaos, laughter, and nostalgia.

All in all, I’m in a season of change and forward motion—sharpening old skills, building new ones, and enjoying the ride.

What was I up to on December 20th, 2024

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Taking on the opportunity of a front-end refresh, it seems that making this update even once a year is a bigger task than I thought.

In the Fall of 2023, I decided to focus all my personal time and energy on my goal of obtaining my Private Pilot Licence and getting back in shape.

I'm super proud that both objectives were reached within 6 months. I obtained my PPL in June 2024 and my first milestone/target weight by the same time. Ultimately, I've lost about 50 kg or 110 lbs in 2024 and I'm now in the best shape I've been in over 15 years. This is extremely satisfying.

I'm looking ahead to 2025 and excited about the opportunities and challenges that await me.

What was I up to on August 7th, 2023

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 13:00:00 GMT

It seems I can only make this updates once a year

Life has remained chaotic but also full of positive surprises.

I've finally taken the leap and I've started training to become a Private Pilot! The learning has been brutal (it's been almost 10 years since I was on a school bench) but also very interesting. I'm hoping to pass my final exam in the first half of 2024.

I've also finally taken another leap and incorporated a company to start monetizing some projects and overall have a corporate umbrella for whatever new shiny thing I'd feel like working on.

After many challenges with the project of building a large format camera from 3D printed parts, I recognized defeat and splurged on an Intrepid Mk IV 4x5. The picture quality is bonkers and it's very fun to shoot.

I had an objective to ride 1,500km on my bike this summer (up from 1,200km last summer), but disappointing weather as well as forest fires made this a more complicated challenge than I expected. It's clearly a bummer.

What was I up to on July 20th, 2022

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 13:00:00 GMT

Almost a year since my last update, what is up?

Life has been a bit chaotic, not gonna lie

Between traveling to France for an emergency, trying to buy a house in the worse market in Canada's history, and separating with my long-term partner, I have to admit that it's been a bit more chaotic than I hoped.

On the brighter side, I was promoted to Team Lead at Customer.io and that new challenge has been fulfilling. It strikes a nice balance of captain/player and makes for totally not boring weeks.

With the waves of Covid, I haven't really traveled nor did I find the energy to plan the next travel. For a time I wanted to work remotely in the US and enjoy the nomadic privilege, but with the gas prices being where they were, this plan fizzled.

I've invested in an electric bike earlier this year and this is one of the best investment I made in a while. I've already biked over 700km in less than 6 months and I'm eager to keep beating my records.

As always, games take a good chunk of my time. I've been a bit burnt out by Apex and found new excitement in Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Generation Zero.

What was I up to on August 12th, 2021

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Almost 5 months since my last update, what is up?

I started my new role at Customer.io and so far so good! I'm trying not to jinx it but I'm fortunate to have a nice team, great leaders, and working on a product I love. I think it really makes a difference. It's pretty exciting to help people extract the most out of it everyday.

I'll be spending a few days in Gaspésie next week to see my old roomate, get some marine air, and hopefully take some nice pictures after almost 18 months without any photos...

These days I'm playing mostly Apex Legends (pretty proud of my 20% win rate and 1 KD this season), Microsoft Flight Simulator, and bouncing between Red Dead Online, Grounded, and Back4Blood Beta the rest of the time.

Despite a uncooperative weather, my garden has been doing pretty good. This year, I wanted to experiment with new species and I have had so much fun seeing my cucamelons, casper eggplants, etc... growing. So yummy!

Now, with the upcoming Fall and although I'm vaccinated, I'm wondering about how the pandemic will shape the cold seaons.

What was I up to on March 30th, 2021

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:00:00 GMT

2021 started pretty crazy—no reasons to change the winning recipe of 2020, eh?

I left my role at Local Logic in February. I tried to get alignment on my future at the company after blowing past all my objectives and working non-stop for a year. I was told to quit. So, I went yolo and did just that.

I have to say I'm pretty proud of me for doing so. It was both a crazy and a courageous choice to draw the line and say "no more". I think that a few years ago I would have kept enduring the abuse and toxicity, rather than calling it quits

Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat as they say.

I got a couple of freelancing gigs to keep me busy while I was enjoying funemployment and I landed a role at Customer.io as a Customer Success Manager. If you ran into me over the past few years and we chatted about marketing automation, there's a 99.999% chance I annoyed you with how freaking awesome Customer.io is as a product. So, I couldn't be more excited to be joining this team.

These days I'm playing mostly Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, H:CotW. I'm looking forward to jumping back a bit more on Flight Simulator, especially with an Oculus Quest on the way.

I've started my seedlings for the season and as usual I'm just amazed by these lil' plants making their way up through the soil. Life is amazing.

While the first quarter of 2021 was kinda bumpy, I'm excited for the rest of the year.

What was I up to on January 10th, 2021

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Well... 2020 was a effing dumpster fire, wasn't it?

I'm hoping 2021 will be better (as everyone probably is) but let's say that I'm cautiously optimistic. Let's see how things are after our latest lockdown.

On the bright side, I think the dumpster fire allowed me to really figure out what was important for me and what I wanted from my life.

We also had a great harvest in our veggie garden over the summer and I converted my landlord and neighbor to the joy of growing your own food.

I also built a flight sim chair out of wood and a recycled auto seat, as well as a custom joystick with an Arduino and some soldered buttons.

These days I'm playing mostly Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Siege. The latest Red Dead Online update was a bloody joke and literally made me churn from the game. I've also started playing chess online and I'm neither great nor terrible.

I've been reading a lot of books on self-sufficiency and homesteading. I've also started preparing for the next growing seasons and can't wait to receive my order of seeds.

Oh and, you've guessed it, I'm cleaning up my websites and domains. Kinda like spring cleaning but with DNS records and code and it's winter.

Also wondering if I should save these updates as some sort of seasonal journal.