To understand but not to speak

I am beginning to understand or at least beginning to understand more spoken French while not being able to speak really anything. Here is a good example of how I hear spoken French and its translation into English in my head. This is from an Aamazon.com review, can you determine the context?

Require a few small hours for a good catch in hands of all these functions utiles?, but, really a good apparatus, reliable, for old and enthusiastic a follower of the traditional réflex; function average average Car; to launch out directly in the meanders of its very good and real capacities. To have at the head that it is not the flying one of a formula 1, in spite of its many and terrifying apparent functions, a bad manipulation does not mean right in the wall, one has time to be found there, therefore not panic and appreciate!.... The corrections of exposures to -1 +1 are well refined and the anti-vibration ideal one if it is Mémé (or George Uncle) which takes the photograph.

Something to do with photography I guess?

White house proposes to sell public lands

This one just struck me on a deep level, I guess I am a tree-huger. The white house has proposed to sell of public lands to pay for schools and roads in rural areas hit with economic hard-ship when logging companies were forced out due to government regulations and sometimes, I am sure, left on their own.

"Basically, they're selling the foundation to pay for the mortgage," said Eric Antebi, spokesman for the Sierra Club. "These lands really belong to future generations and shouldn't be sold to the highest bidder. There's no reason why the world's biggest economic power needs to sell parkland to make ends meet."

But then is it really all that bad?

"The lands we identified today are isolated and expensive to manage," said Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture in a Friday news conference in Washington, D.C. "In some places, they are part of Forest Service ownership more as an accident of history."

So the amount of the land is not much, only 0.16% of the total 190 million acres, and the stuff they are selling, if you trust Mark Rey, is not that valued. But the same math done with the money they want to get from the selloff compared to the money going to finance the military? The money they want to generate is 800 million, the amount for the military (this year) is 440 billion (thats 440,000 billion). So the USDA Forest Service is looking to make 0.18% of the budget for the military? Why is the United States in this situation and acting this way? The United States is the global superpower and needs to sell off 0.16% of its public lands to generate (in a few years) 0.18% of its expense for war (in one year). The leaders of the United States should remember they only have the luxury of having actual public land to sell is because of the foresight of previous leaders. And I agree Eric Antebi, these lands "really belong to future generations".

Seattle Times
USDA Forest Services

Olympique de Marseille

Today is Sunday, Marseille is dead with everything closed, of course, right, this is Europe and not strip mall America. We do have differences in culture. But wait, I have found one of few shops open and it is a consumer free-for-all. Shop name is Bricorama, sort of like or well exactly like a Home-Depot. Full to the brim with items for your yard, living room, kitchen, bath, and roof. From do it yourself to full on furniture and expensive lamps. Full to the brim with people to, everyone in a consumer frenzy, calling their spouse on the cell trying to describe the options available on the latest in shower fixings. Well, not really your normal scene on a sunday in a Mediterranean city but things are changing.

To the point of my post, on returning home I went to stop at a regular sandwich stand and to my amazement there were 50 people in line? Oh, that is what all the blue scarfs I should have noted are telling me. There is a soccer match (or I should say football as they do kick the ball, they don't hold it in their hands). Olympique de Marseille vs Toulouse.

Now to the point of my post, next comes the sounds of police sirens, lots of them. Up the wide Avenue du Prado comes 2 police cars and 2 motorcycles followed by 2 decked out tour buses full with the team from Toulouse, followed up with two more police cars to boot. Sirens and lights on full tilt, they were really going at a good clip. I don't know, I guess it made me happy in some way, a 6 unit police escort for a football team.

Jardin Valmer, Marseille

P1010056
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Today I found a park right in downtown Marseille overlooking the Mediterranean. This is a shot of the entrance to the port with the white cliffed islands, some with old forts.

It is a park typical of Marseille, some trash around, broken benches, half of them facing a bush, really dense undergrowth that has not been tended to in months, perfect for someone to be hiding in (but that never happens). And then this, a pristine view of the Mediterranean that some people would pay millions for? I also found the bus to get me straight from my apartment to the park, score two for the Enlish speaking guy in Marseille.

Full moon January camping in the calanques.

One weekend in January a group of 5 of us set out for a nighttime walk and some camping with the full moon and clear skies, there was no need for flashlights. The weather afforded us just a few layers and camping with just an average bag and no tent was no problem. Our destination was a secret cave one of the guys knew about, well the cave was already occupied so we found a spot right on the water, protected by an old stone wall originally used to protect the city of Marseille from Napoleon.

Checking out the morning view

Our site from back up the cliffs

The peninsula we camped on put us in front of the Cosquer cave. An underwater cavern that has wall paintings of ice-age animals dating back to at least 20 000 BC.


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