Ok I admit it.
I’m excited about tonight’s game. Who knows what will happen.
UPDATE: Well, there goes that. GOOO ITALY.
Tag Archives: france
Beep Beep Beep Goes Paris
Why bother trying to sleep… here in Paris people are hanging out their car windows shouting and harassing each other in celebration of the victory over Brazil. As we walked the streets from sitting on the banks of that canal, I must admit I’m too used to the Amsterdam small-town style of things, I was scared. B on the other hand walked in amusement. He kept saying “it’s great… I still can’t believe they won.” It was clear he enjoys seeing the city like this, and my fear is clearly a sign that I’m from out of town. He also pointed out that this victory is important for the national self esteem… apparently people have been pretty bummed sinced not getting the olympics and rejecting the EU constitution.
Let me try and salvage this from being another world cup post. The real story of my saturday in France was going out, for the second time in my life, to visit madame L at her little piece of paradise somewhere outside Paris. As I’m sure I mentioned during my last visit, I love the old house she lives in and the beautiful property around it including the old church. An extra bonus was that this time I brought MAdge with me… the long awaited meeting between the two of them… it was exciting. Together with the French man… the four of us poured over computers and cameras and sat outside enjoying conversation, but also the occasional comfortable silence. What a day.
I leave you with a photo of the house, which I hope the madame doesn’t mind me publishing. When I wake, and Paris is hung over, I will go to meet the Max and Stacey from Karmabanque for the Sunday Roast… and Im not talking food.
Radioactive Policies
Rain has cooled things in Berlin, hopefully that includes excessively jubilant Spain fans. And while the cool air blows through the apartment, I’m digging around into certain issues from the past week. One of which involves Canada, where the province of Ontario has decided to build new nuclear powerplants, the first North American plants in three decades, following years of financial, political, and safety crises.
This plan gets the support of the conservative Prime Minister, of course. And it certainly rings true with the rhetoric of his neighbor to the south. But the way pro-nuclear lobbyists and the big companies behind them refer to this as a nuclear “renaissance” is disturbing. Be it in Canada, Berlin, Japan, or Brazil… the world still has not figured out how to store radioactive waste in a safe way. Better yet, we don’t even know IF that can be done at all. In Nevada they want to put it under a mountain. In Europe they seem to pass it back and forth by rail between Germany and France. In Japan… what do the Japanese do with their waste?
So instead of taking the focus off nuclear, since it is simply not viable if you value human lives and health, they’ve decided to just keep going.
I was considering all this in the context of an article I was reading in the Courrier International about the WIPP radioactive waste storage project in New Mexico. Here’s the aspect of the project that I find ponderous: They’re trying to devise a system of warning that will be understandable for future civilizations. Think about it — the radioactive material is still dangerous in 250,000 years. So by that point, language as we know it will not exist… at least not in its present form. So how do you alert people not to dig there? That this is deadly waste we left behind because we needed energy and it was good business for a few important individuals.
bm136 The Process of Creating 1 Berlin
(fixed because I am an idiot and it is 200 degrees centiheit in here. )
This apartment is like a furnace. My first impressions of being in Berlin will always be how dam hot it is. By second impression will be that of Alexanderplatz, as good friends from the Chaos Computer Club berlin took me to see some “Leftover shit from the East Berlin Days”. It was a fascinating walk just as it’s a fascinating city, especially with the very insane world cup being in full swing. As inept France stumbled to another tie, this podcast was recorded, focusing on just where we are in terms of uniting the east and west Berlin of old.
There was this French Teacher
Cold Thursday nights in late-May Amsterdam are a goodtime for watching the LOST season finale and taking a stroll down memory lane.
Back when I worked for the Dharma Initiative….. ha, just kidding; the internet does not need more TV blog posts. I’ll start again.
Back in 2001, right around the time the WTC towers fell, I was enrolled as a happy night student at New York City’s Alliance Française. This is the French cultural center and language school that you can find in most major cities all over the world, funded by the French government, I do believe. I was there to make use of my favorite language, after my time in southern france and all my new francophone friends in Lisbon, I needed something to give me a place to have conversations and improve my weak spots. The alliance seemed like the perfect place and of course I hoped to meet some great people there or a nice girl… either is always a welcome thing.
So as the rubble was sorted through, the country was going anthrax crazy, and the government prepared to bomb Afghanistan, I was making the commute to class and sitting for a few hours each week chit chatting away and enjoying the vibe. But time passed quickly. Most of the other classmates, especially the nice girls, didn’t seem preoccupied with hanging out with me, which I grew to accept.
Instead however, I did make friends with someone else in the class: the teacher. Gilles was from Paris, if I remember correctly. He was a calm and hip dude in his early 30’s (i think) who seemed to be caught in between loving new york, but being sick of the US. I’d hang a little longer after class and sometimes we would chat. I remember he liked my plan to move to Portugal… he was a big supporter of it, and expressed that he intended to move back to France or Europe at some point.
Thats pretty much how it went. Semester ended. I moved to Portugal. Gilles kept in touch… infrequent emails saying hello. Still in New York. Still plotting his exit. And well, you know how it goes… time passes..
And then today I got an email: A familiar name announces a new book; a novel. He probably doesn’t remember that I’m on his mass email list. Still, seeing the name in my email brought back good memories. My time as a night student, working on my french, while the city wrapped itself in American flags, and the government bombed a country to dust.
Even CNN Can’t Hide Reality
I have a tendancy to stay up til 2am. Actually I tend to stay working on things til 2am, and then I flip on the TV and catch up on either BBCnews, France’s TV5, the occasional Dutch NOVA program, or yes.. like last night – CNN.
My excuse for CNN watching is that its low on the channel list and I can only surf channel up or down. Plus I’m mesmorized by the fact that Larry King has a show that people watch, cause he is perhaps the most useless man on television.
So it’s 2h30am last night… and I’m starting to fade, and the good-looking british-thai anchorwoman tells the audience to be careful, as the following report would have images that might disturb us. – I perked up. Disturbing? On CNN? Would could it be?
The segment was spending a “day” (5 minutes) in an Army hospital in Baghdad. And on this day, injured soldiers with bloody hands and feet and yellow skin were being helicoptered in one-after-another. The doctor would talk to the patients and honestly tell them he may not be able to “save the leg”. There was a good amount of pain sounds; moaning, crying, shouting. All the while I kept thinking — this is on CNN?!
Earlier I had read that the Baghdad morgue was reporting 1,000 deaths per day. And as I rode to frisbee practice, Radio Open Source had journalists working in the “green zone” talking about how everynight there are gunbattles and kidnappings, and every morning you see the bodies in the streets.
I know people compare this to vietnam sometimes. I know other people hate comparisons. However you choose to look at it, I watch reports from all over the world, including from inside Iraq, and what’s going on is truely sad and could have been avoided. Like parents so often (at least they used to!) teach their children, violence is not the way to solve problems.