My worst haircut

I think I haven't had many haircuts in my life so far, but I can say that when I was a little kid I got a very "popular" (unpopular, to be honest) haircut, which is the "bowl haircut". I don't know what did parents have in their head during the 90's, 'cause I'm pretty sure to have watched dozens of kids with the same haircut as me. I'd always hate it, and many of my classmates bulled me saying "corte de pelela vacenica voladora" :( Even I swore I'd never allow my children to have that haircut!

Apart from that, I don't have many hairstyle experiences since I had my head shaved for almost 9 years, and I like how it looks on me. It really suits me, though now I'm letting my hair just to do something different and try how it looks.

This is me, at the age of 4 I think. I had that haircut for 6 six years.

Foreign languages to be taught in elementary schools

The article is about a measure which is abut to becarried out by the UK government, consisting in the teaching of a foreign language at the age of seven. The idea of this measure is to prevent the low performance of people when expressing ideas in another language, along with the improvment of certain knowledge like science and math in different languages.


There is also said in the article that the most important stage for learning is between four and five years old, in which children are able and more receptive to learn the basic structures of any language, though in order to do that, children must be assisted by schools with aid from the government so they can achive this goal.

 

There is also controversy between politicans due there are different kind of schools, which makes the range of education between free schools and private schools become broad, including the learning of a foreign language.

   Therefore, changes must be carried out in a wide range of education, involving not onlyyounger students but all the different levels of education. This is possible by the supervision of certified teachers with the recquired teaching skills to teach this to any education level and be sure this iniciative works properly.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/10/foreign-languages-compulsory-aged-7

World's best cartoon ever!

I must say that I really enjoyed watching different kinds of cartoons. Since I was a child, I had watched so many cartoons that I don't even remember some of them. However, there is one in particular, which definitely marked my childhood, as it did for many other children as well, and I don't care if is too mainstream, 'cause it rocks and that is a fact. I'm talking about Dragon Ball!

I think I would have to write too much in order to describe the adventures of Son Goku and his friends, and I guess you all know them, so I won't talk about it. I remember I was 6 years old when I watched Dragon Ball for the first time, and it was simply great! The adventures of a young Goku and his friends in the search of the Dragon Balls was simply great, and when I was 8 years old, the release of Dragon Ball Z marked and before and after in my life. I remember watching it on my own, and then commenting it with my friends at school, or playing to be Goku or Vegeta, etc. These are nice moments of my childhood =)

I think there are a lot of reasons why I like this cartoon, apart from the fact that's very entertaining. Even now I'm currently watching it every day, 'cause now I can watch it and have the episodes in my computer. Now that I'm older, I can notice all the values that you can learn by watching Dragon Ball, for example courage, friendship, and to fight for the justice and never give up. Although some people might say it is full of violence, this is always shown as the struggle between good and evil, of course being good the ultimate winner, showing that evil will never win and you have to fight for good things.

My favourite piece of technology

Today's assignament consist of writing about the piece of technology I value the most, and this is my own personal computer.

Personal computers are -if not the greatest of all- one of the greatest invention of all human history. In my case, my computer, although is not the greatest computer with lots of hard disk space or stunning graphics, has been loyal to me and very useful for all the things I like to do.

I have my computer for at least six years, and throughout this years, it had been repaired and upgraded lots of time. Currently, I use it for playing games (actually I consider myself a gamer) such as Skyrim, Unreal Tournament, among others, and of course to listen to music, watch movies and series, and .. why not, do home works. I think this multiuse usage is what I like the most of my computer, and that many technologically advanced gadgets like smartphones for example, are still unable to do.

I just hope to last for a long long time more, because I don't have any idea what I would do if I don't have it.

I don't have anhy picture of my personal computer, so I will upload a picture of a random PC.

See you later

Clearest sky of the world

Well, today's assignament consists of writing about one's favourite picture, but I don't really have  specific favourite picture. I do however have lots of favourites picture, all of the different in content and reasons to like, so I will upload one of them which is quite beautiful for me. This is a picture of the Milky Way, taken here in Chile in 2010 near Paranal Observatory, being this one of the most beautiful pictures of our galaxy.

To be honest, I don't have idea who took this picture, though I have to say he or she made a remarkable job by doing so =) This view is simply amazing, and we Chileans should consider ourselves lucky for having such view from our skies. Actually, Chile has the clearest skies of the world, making our country the most apropiate for the study of our universe.

I really like this picture not only for its beauty but also 'cause I'm really apasionated about anything related to the space =) I think if I have the chance of becoming an astronaut or anything like that, I would take it without hesitate. Anyway, another reason I like this picture is because I'm damn proud of our country for having such marvels as views like this one =)

Éire

I think the country I would like to visit the most is Ireland. I don't why, but it has something that attracts from a long time. There are of course some other countries I would like to visit, for example England, Germany, Finnland, Norway and a lot of other European countries.

But with Ireland the thing is different. I must say I'm a big fan of Celtic culture, and Ireland is one of the most representative countries of the Celtic world. Lots of things have happened through its lands; its lands still keep in the wind stories of anciente cultures arising from its meadow and forests, and after thousands of years, and all kind of intrusions and struggles, the Irish Celtic culture has endure over the time.

Its green meadow is unique, only comparable to the landscapes from Scotland (which are not that similar), and the Irish identity is also unique and different from other countries, even from Scotland or England.

If I could go there, I'm not sure what I would like to do. Maybe I would like to travel through all the country in order to know all its landscapes, cities and ruins. I would also like to learn about its historic places, or to have a drink in a traditional Irish pub hehe :P I think is not necessary to say I would like to work and study there a lot, and if I have a chance to go there, I would take it without any question.

The music of the Ainur

I must say I'm really interested in mythological stories or tales, because I'm a big fan of stories with elves, dwarves, fairies or things like that. Especially stories written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

There is a particular story written by him which is very interesting to me, and that is the creation of the world. In the beginning, there was nothing except Eru Ilúvatar (a.k.a "The One"), who is the one true mighty God of all Tolkien's mythology. Then he created from his thoughts the Ainur (the "Holy Ones") , who are spirits very close to christian Angels, and he asked them to sing a great song known as "The Song of the Ainur". The song produced a vision of how the Universe could look if it would exist, and the Ainur were so amazed by this vision that they wanted to make this vision true. Eru then created the Universe (called Eä) for them by using the Secret Fire, creating Arda (our world), and he asked them to help shaping our world and all the living things. But there was one Ainur named Melkor, who at the moment of singing the Song, he sang in a disrespectful  way. Melkor then tried to rule the newly formed Arda and he arose as the absolut Evil Lord.

The Ainur took material form, and they became in the Valar and the Maiar, who fought against Melkor and defeated him. They imprisioned Melkor for thousands of years while Eru directly created what are called "the first sons of Eru", the Elves and after lots of wars and other importan facts (such as the arise of the Sun and the Moon), the second sons of Eru, the Men, were created.

I find that Tolkin had truly a great imagination, and his tales are so rich and full of details. It is simple amazing! He even created full languages, which I think it must be extremely complicated at least. Anyway, if you want to find out more about this story or other stories of Tolkien's world, I invite you to read The Silmarillion, a book in which Tolkien explain a lot of things, truly necessary and recommendable if you want to know more about The Lord of the Rings story.

Living the life like a loaded gun

About four years ago I went to a concert of an English band called The Business. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of the band, but they do have some real good songs.
I remember me and two other friends, we didn’t have the enough money to buy tickets for the concert, but the people who brought them were friends of one of us, and they offered us a choice: if we deliver some fliers over the city, we would enter for free! So, guess what we did? We worked so hard during a whole day, that we practically filled the entire city with the fliers.

The Business is an English band who plays Oi!, a music style which is very similar to Punk but it was made for Skinheads in the U.K. The band itself doesn’t consider themselves as Skinheads or anything like that though, they just sing about having some beers and hanging out with friends.

Anyway, the D Day came. We bought some beers and we were expecting to enter as soon as possible. But they didn’t want to allow us to pass! Bloody old c*nts! I swear I was so pissed off I feel I could kill anyone who crossed in front of me. Thanks Thor, Odin, Ra and Charlie Mopps –the lord of Beer- the friend of my friend arrive and he solved all the misunderstood.

We entered to the gym were the concert was, and there was a lot of skinheads, with their shaved heads, boots and braces, thinking who looks tougher, but I knew they were just a bunch of freaking kids trying to look tough. I was a Skinhead since 2002, I didn’t get impressed by anyone on the scene.

There were some Chilean bands, but to be honest I didn’t pay them much attention. Then, the band played and it was awesome! Despite I don’t like too much the band; they sing all the songs I wanted. It was really astonishing! I took my t-shirt away, just with my boots, jeans and braces, with a bottle of beer, thinking moments like that one are so much difficult to experience again, that you have to feel every moment as if it was the last moment of your life. Living the life like a loaded gun hehe.

This is the same flier that allowed us to enter the concert.

"Aces High"

Maybe my dream job is not as impossible as other people's, but since I've always wanted to do it, and I'm not actually doing it, I think it's a good choice (along with being a game tester, which I think would be my other dream job hehe :P). My dream job is to be a fighter aircraft pilot.


Since I was a child I've always dreamed about flying! Either by flying in a figher aircraft or by gaining a super-power (xD), my dream has always been to fly, to fly higher and faster than anyone, and then say "Yeah, I'm goo as f*ck! (H)".


Of course, this is a fantastic and idealised view of what I THINK IT MIGHT BE that job. But, come on! I t can be far from it! Testing new aircrafts, doing some recon, and living as any other military profession. As far as I know, being an officer of the Air Force means a very good wage.

Who I'd like to work with? Don't know, I guess with anyone I'd meet there, or with anyone who share my passion to fly. When I was younger, maybe I had a chance to do it, but I didn't just because I was too f*cking stupid and coward to step forward and say "Yes, I'd to do this". I also was stupid because I chose friends from that time, instead of doing that, and well .. I have no more those "friends". Life's a bitch! But anyway,  every time I heard the song "Aces High" from Iron Maiden, I imagine myself flying a fighter aircraft, chasing the enemy's crafts, doing lots of loops and twists, feeling the adrenaline of being inside the cockpit, being the best god damn pilot the world has ever seen! Something between those WWII dogfight pilots and Top Gun haha. And in top of this, I'd be constantly travelling around the world, and that's something I've always wanted to do too!

"All of this has happened before, and it will happen again"

I’d like to talk about Dragon Ball, which is my favourite TV show, but I think I’d have to write too much to explain the characters and the different aventures Goku and his friends pass through. So, I will talk about my favourite TV show after Dragon Ball, and this is Battlestar Galactica.

Humanity live in twelve different worlds in an unknown part of the galaxy, named “The Twelve Colonies of Kobol”. Their names are similiar to our zodiac signs (Aerilon, Tauron, Scorpio, etc.). Anyway, forty years before, humanity had created artificial intelligence called Cylons, who rebelled against their human makers and waged a war against humanity named “The Cylon War”, which conclude with the sign of an armistice between the two factions and the exile of the Cylons to unknown space. After forty years, no one have known anything about them, until they came back, with a few surprises for mankind. Cylons have not only the ability to look exactly as humans but they have feelings and there’s no way to distinguish them from real humans. Without any warning they infiltrated and wiped out humanity in a nuclear holocaust, with the death of 50 billion people in the twelve planets.

But there are survirvors! Aproximaly 50.000 people have survived on civilian ships in space at the moment of the attack, and an old war ship named Galactica, which was about to be decommisioned. Now they have to scape from the Cylons, and to face the fact that anyone can be a potential Cylon agent. These are the last remains of Humanity.

. They now have to flee from Cylons and find themselves a new home in the galaxy. However, in their religion, there’s an old story who most people think it’s pure fantasy, about their past. The story tells that humanity flee from their homeplanet Kobol, and separeted into thirteen tribes. Twelve tribes went to the same direction but the thirteen tribe went to a completely different place in the galaxy, to live in a legendary planet called Earth.

So the story it’s about the exodus of Humanity of their homeplanets, their search of a new home and the mythical planet Earth (to be their new home), and the struggle against Cylons (I think I got too excited talking about the plot of the show :P )  

This TV show is full of different characters, but one of the thing that atracted me the most was that characters are not just “good guy” and “bad guy”, but every of them has characteristics of both. You can even think in some situations that Cylons are doing good on pursuing Humanity or that humans do not deserve to live. There are good and bad people in both sides, and it’s also very intriging the fact that anyone can be a Cylon even without knowing it! For example, Liutenant Kara “Starbuck” Thrace is one of the main characters, and she is so quick tempered, and her relation with Cylons is very ambiguous throughout the story. Or Captain Lee “Apolo” Adama, whose role changed a lot of times in the story.

Another thing I like of this TV show is that, despite the fact that is a science fiction show, it is not so over-the-top. Humans travel through the stars but thatdoesn’t means they have laser guns or they met any alien weird-looking race. Things are simple: life in space is not easy, there are no friendly alien races, there is no super advanced technology (except for the space travels), there are no plasma beams but guns with bullets. Humanity is supposedly on the run; they have no reinforcements, no help at all! Ships are not like Startrek ships, clean and tidy, but they are dirty and almost claustrophobic, like a submarine. And people is not perfect, the main characters are not always heroes as “bad guys” sometimes assume the role of “heroes” and so on. The characters are not flawless, they are real human beings fighting for their lives and dealing with different issues. Another important factor of the show is religion, because there’s a religious clash between Cylons (who believe in one true God) and humans (who believe in the Greek Gods, like Zeus, Apolo, Athena, etc.). Religion has a great impact on the show because (SPOILER) through the story, there are some “divine beings” who help both humans and cylons on different things which are all part of a greater plan which is revealed in the last episode.

I have seen this TV shows, its four seasons, about 5 times, and it never get me bored! It makes me think a lot of things, about our history as human kind. I personally think that we humans came from the stars to this world, and for different reasons we have forgotten this. Every ancient culture tell us about Gods that came from the skies and create mankind. Why can be these Gods humans themselves, coming from the stars? At least that’s what I think and believe. And every time I watch this show, I feel so true this thought. Because at the end of the last season (SPOILER), it is stated that we Earthlings are actually  the descendants of those brave people who came from the stars to this world about 150.000 years ago, fighting and running of the Cylons. As a famous sentence of the show stated “all of this has happened before, and it will happen again”, the history it’s cyclic. People from Kobol created their own robots who rebelled against them, then Colonial people did the same, and in the last scene of the last episode, there’s a TV on a store in New York showing the “advances on cybernetics”. I think story it’s cyclic, and it is very possible that our civilisation may not be the first human civilisation on this planet. Who know? All I know, is that every time I watch this show, I feel I’m not the only one who think these things. 

OR, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ALL THE THINGS I HAVE SAID, YOU MAY WATCH THIS TRAILER TO SEE WHAT THE SHOW IS ABOUT :D 

Movies: A hell of a boring world would be without them

So this week's new topic is movies. Well, what can I say about movies? What a hell of a boring world would be if movies weren't created!

If I'll have to choose my favourite movie genre, I think I'll choose science-fiction movies. I do like movies from different styles though, it just depends on the movie itself.

Science fiction is the choice I would make, because science fiction movies make me feel so imaginative. Every story about space travels, the future of mankind, unknown species, or things like that make me questions myself about our reality: and what about those things are not fantasy but reality? Could it be, why not? Just because we don't know we can't say it's not possible all the things exposed in science fictions movies.

I don't have a favourite movie, but I do have a favourite science fiction serie, which is Battlestar Galactica. When I watched the first episode, it seriosly blew my brains off! The idea was so original (I'm not giving any spoiler so that way people who get interested may watch it on their own), the visual effects, the characters, the plot, etc. The whole idea got me going long time, and I couldn't believe that it was the same serie I used to hate because of all the advertisements on TV! My first impression after the first episode was "Gotta watch all the episodes now!". And so I did. I can tell Battlestar Galactica got me from the first episode to the final one, which was outstanding. That's the most remarkable thing of this serie, because there are lots of series (specially science fiction ones) which have excellent plots, but crappy endings (if they give them an ending). This is the case (in my opinion) of the Stargate series, The Event, Terra Nova, etc. All of them excellent plots, characters, etc. but lousy endings. I use to think that either Yanks have shit on their minds that refuse good plots and supports those stupid yanks comedy series, with almost no humor at all, or writters seriously enjoy by doing great plots and then ruined them by writing bad endings. I don't know, maybe both. Anyway, that's what I can say about my "favourite" series =)

Cultural clash

What's a cultural clash? A cultural clash is the result of a misunderstanding between two or more different cultures. This can be seen in practically every cultural aspect, from music to every day habits, and it's occasioned  when people are not accostumed to someone else's culture. There are lots of examples of this all around the world, but if I have to choose one, I'll choose the case of indigenous people here in Chile.

Mapuches are known not only for their different culture from the Spanish descendant culture, but also 'cause they keep their culture still alive. We can see this in names, typical foods, costumes, words, legends, etc. I think it must be shocking for both Spanish and Mapuches people when they first encounter. In one hand, Mapuches might have thought that Spanish people were some kind of beasts or in the best case, not human beings like them. On the other hand, Spanish surely thought that Mapuches were sub-humans very different from them, almost considerably slaves. This kind of cultural clash has happened all over the world though. It happens every time a culture meets another, and it could be devasting if one of the culture is stronger than the other.

I chose this example, because it's something that has happened through all the history, and what a better case that the one that happens in the country where we lived. There are still differences between Mapuche and Chilean cultures,

Personally, I don't recall to have presenced any kind of cultural crash. Not as severe as I stated though. When I travelled to Argentina three years ago, I experienced this cultural clash in misunderstandings with Argentinian people for the difference of our way to speak. Another difference were some daily habits or meals, but it wasn't a severe cultural crash.

Music

For me, music is one of the most important things on my life, because without music, this world simply wouldn't have sense. It is a way to express, a kind of language that it's common to every culture all over the world. For me, it's a way to have fun, to let my imagination fly away.


I'm not sure if there's a particular style of music that suits me. I'm really into punk and Oi! music, although there is been a lot of time since I left the scene. I'm also very into folk music  I'm also very into the Folk music.  This is music with the influence of traditional instruments and music from the celtic and nordic culture. It has a lot of rammification, but the bands I like the most are Korpiklaani, Finnntroll, Nogroth, Eluveitie, etc.


On the other hand, I have been influenced by my dad to listen groups such as Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, U2, etc. I like bands from a lot of styles within rock music. But if I have to choose one band and style, I think I'll choose Sex Pistols. Not only for their very rude style of making music but also for their attitude. They simply didn't give a fuck if the Queen itself was watching as they spit the Union Jack. That's simply the best! And in top of that, their style although wasn't very elaborated, was catchy, aggressive and easy to play.


As I don't like any specific style of music or band, I'll post a picture from Sex Pistols and a video from Korpiklaani. Enjoy! 

I

Bilinguism

As far as I know, Bilinguism is the ability to listen, read and speak two different languages. Or even more, although I'm not sure if that would be still be called Bilinguism or something else. There's plenty information on the Internet about this topic, but there's too much information. One of the things I read about, was that some people believe Bilinguism is the knowledge and usage of two different languages, but with more fluency in one idiom than the other. Well, I think this is OBVIOUSLY because every person will be more fluent in their mother tongue, regardless the skills that person may have in the other language.

Personally, I would like to speak in several languages, specially German. I know it's very difficult though. I like the way it sounds and the different words, or the culture that it represents. I don't know, I just like it. Of course, I would like to learn German after I finished to learn English.

I think the ability to speak in different languages is something common to us, and that we are all very capable to do it. But to do so, we have to work hard, some more than others. Every person could learn to speak in different tongues, and I think it's very important to improve ourselves as persons, and to learn different cultures.

Even the guy from the picture below can learn to speak in English xD Or the guy from the video below too xD

What's writing to me?

Well, I think writing is one of the most important things you have to learn when you are trying to learn a different language, in this case English. Personally, I like to read and I like to write. I mean not only in English but in my mother tongue as well. This doesn't mean that I'm reading all day or anything like that, I just like to enjoy a good reading.

About if it's easier or more difficult to write in English than in Spanish, well I think it's very obvious that English is more difficult, not impossible though. Anyway, I think it will be very useful to learn how to write properly, so that way we could improve our English.

I hope it will be a good and fun experience =)