Animals!

In the beginning, there was a man a woman and a child. The child was overprotected by the couple, who had no other being to care about, since they didn’t even mind about the other too much.
The child grew useless and aimless, since he had everything. The child never had to move at all or to do even the slightest effort to get something and even though he seemed happy, he needed more than that.
The couple always bought him everything, even the things he didn’t seem to need. Finally, he tried to run and to be free, but actually, all that the child could do was, well, roll. He was pretty overweighed, as you may have noticed. After the titanic effort of walking as far as he could (actually, the child , the child passed out after a couple of blocks) he was retrieved by the local police.
The child is still living a poor life, with mental problems and a lot of healthy issues as well. The problem is that I was talking about the pet of the family, no their son. A lot of people treat their pets like if they were people and causses them a lot of problems in the way of doing so.

It is important to be concient about the fact that our pets are animals and not people, therefore, we have to treat them as animals. Things like spas were invented for people, not for the pets of aimless people who don't know what do with their money.
If you need to fullfill some kind of void, well, ask a girl out, breed a chil, join a club. Anything. Otherwise, you'll traumatize a poor animal because of your traumas.

Teenager's dilemma

One dilemma that a teenager may face is choosing a career path. It may be difficult to choose the best one since there are so many options and since there is actually a lot involved in the action of choosing a career. A teenager may be biased because of the career that his/her parents chose or because there is some career that everybody is studying. Also, there are some teenagers that may choose a career because the school that offers it is popular or is commonly known as an easy school and they don’t want to face a difficult career. Another problem may be friends, who may drag the teenager to one school even though it may not be what they want.
What the student needs to keep in mind is his/her goals. Otherwise it will be easy to get lost. You also need to know that there is no way to be wrong. Life goes on and so the student will be and she /he may end up working in something that had nothing to do with their career.

Birthday cartoons!

A week ago it was my birthday. October 13. It also happened to be my 18th birthday. Well, the day before it I read a couple of webcomics (I'm a new fanatic of webcomics, by the way) that were about birthdays.

Both were pretty depressive and contributed to make me worry about being older. Even though people may think that having 18 is a good thing, I guess it is quite sad. You quit being a boy and have a lot of responsablities more.

So, here they are. The first one comes from a webcomic called A Softer World. The tone of this one is pretty sad, it is about sorrow, and sadness and death. But the style in which they are presented is indeed extremelly artistic.

A Softer World

I love the concept.

The second one is from the Perry Bible Fellowship. This one generally present little cute images and ends the strip in a horrible way, or the other way round, or entwines both of them. This one is an example:

The Perry Bible Fellowship


Way creepier, isn't it?

Birthdays are not as good as they may seem at first sight. The 18th one is just especial because you can do legally a lot of stuff you weren't allowed to do before. Putting that aside, it sucks to be an adult.

Life Burns!

And the last song is this Life Burns!, from the Finish metal band Apocalyptica. They are really famous because they only perform using cellos (and lately a drummer). The song comes from their eponymous album.

I wanted to put this song as the last one as a conclusion of all the post. I chose this one because it says what I think about life: that it is like burning. There is a lot of wicked about life, and each day we are slowly burning. And also a lot that we take for granted in our lifes is hollow.

But to be honest, I don't really think that it matters that much. I mean, it is important to consider this in order not to waste our whole existance i something that is not important at all. I'm not talking from a suicidal perspective, I think that even if life is like that, we need to try to enjoy it one way or another.

This is everything, I hope you enjoyed listening the songs I uploaded as much as I did uploading them.

Every summer you have seen was filled with April rain

The next song is from the Dutch symphonic metal band Delain. The song is called April Rain, from the album of the same name.

The song is about how we imagine a lot of our problems. Life is way better than what people usually thinks. Saddly, always there is going to be somebody who doesn't want to be happy. But happines is within each one. The potential to change each one life resides in us and no mather how much a third person or our circunstances help us to reach happiness, if we don't decide, we won't ever be able to enjoy life.

I know that life sometimes can be difficult, but we can improve it if we decide. I know as well that are certain things that cannot be changed and certain circunstances that won't let us do some things. But we don't have to limit ourselves for that.

Here is the song:

I need to keep the scars to prove there was a time when I loved something more than life

The next song is also from a Finnish band. They perform power metal and they are called Sonata Arctica. The song is called Don't say a word, from their album Reckoning Night.

As I said before, this song as the past one, doesn't have a personal tide to me. But I decided to include because, as the past song, this one represents a situation in a perfect way. But this one is not about love, is about a broken heart. This is one of the most angry yet loving songs you'll ever listen.

The lyrics show us the feeling of the lyric voice who lost somebody who he loved a lot. After the betrayal of the loved one, the only thing that is left is hatred.

This is the video of the song, from their DVD For the sake of revenge:



But since the quality of the other one is quite bad, well, here is another one, which I didn't really intneded to put because is shortened

Would you do it with me? Heal the scars and change the stars.

The next song is from another Finnish band. It is called Nightwish. The song I'd like to show is called Ever Dream, from their album Century Child.

To be honest this song, as the next one, doesn't have a deep reason. The only thing that distinguish it from the thousands of songs that I have in my iPod is that it is one of the most romantic songs I've heard in my whole life. If you could squish it like a lemon, you would get honey mixed with a bit of tears.

This is the video of the song, it is from a DVD of the band, called End of an Era. It is interesting because it records the last time the band played with that singer, just after that concert the band fired her, for personal reasons.

Take a flight from Trinity to Novaja Zemlja!

But lets leave sentimentalisms behind. The next song is from the heavy metal Finnish band Tarot. It is called Follow the Blind, from their album Suffer our pleasures.

The song is basically about the war. I t says that no matter what the excuses are for a man to kill another of his kind, in the end we are just animals. It seems to say that mankind's worst enemy is the man.

The frase "Take a flight from Trinity to Novaja Zemlja" also suggests that the song is about the nuclear weapons. This is because in Trinity was testeed the first atomic bomb. In the other hand, in Novaja Zemlja was exploded the biggest weapon ever created by mankind: the Tzar Bomb.

I chose this song because I'm completely against the war. I actually believe it is necesary for the economy to regulate to have some wars, but that doesn't mean that I agree with them. The carnage, suffering and losses caused by wars just make us look like animals.

Here is a video of the song. As with the first one, I just couldn't find a better one.

Who we are and who we want to be is not the same all the time

The next song is from the German gothic rock band Xandria. It is called Who we are (and who we want to be) and appeared in theri album India. The song is about how we are not always what we wanted to be or what we were supposed to be.

I think that there are so many things I'd like to say to the people around me (good and bad things, actually) and things that I wish I had said to people that for one reason or other are not anymore arround here. I don't think that people is actually able to really manage through life without being hurt at all. Perhaps there are some people out there, who never were hurt... because they didn't got near anybody in their whole life.

In a sense, it is better to be hurt. As people say, better to love and loose than not having loved at all. But, in the other hand, this beautiful song has all the reason (the only thing i don't like about it is that it is written from a female perspective).

Here is the song:

Oh, I can think, I can work, I don't need your support!

In this point it starts to become more personal. The next song I'd like topresent is called Between Love anf Fire from another Dutch symphonic metal band called After Forever It comes from their album Invisible Circles. This album is about a child whose parents doesn't love nor care for him.

I didn't intend to expose myself as a suffered child. I'm not that at all. The reason for me to use this song is that it explains the origin of the couple that eventually raised the traumatized child that protagonizes Invisible Circles. They were a couple that only cared about having a succesfull career and had a child to try to save their completely lost marriage. Instead, they ruined the life of a new life that wasn't to blame.

I feel that I'm actually in the trend to become a person like the ones that appear in the song. A person that just cares about oneself and cannot give love to the others. If I continue the way I am, just caring about my future life and not about the people that surrounds me, I'll end up marrying a person like and complaining about the desires of my wife "I haven't got the time top raise a brat."

So, this is something I really need to avoid. If I ever become a dad, I'd wish to raise my child in a caring home.


Here is the video of the song. It is from a live performing of the band at Pinkpop festival.

It's easy to condemn without looking in the mirror

The third song is from the Dutch Symphonic Metal band Epica. It is called Cry for the Moon and it comes from their first album, The Phantom Agony. The song talks (even though it is not in an extremely evident way) about the abuses of the priests on the children.

I picked this song because I really despise Catholic Church in general. I believe that it is more a bad influence in the world that a good one. There are lots of cases in México of priests that have done unforgivable things with children. That kind of people deserve to burn in the hell they preach about.

The song by itself is really beautiful. Even the male growling vocals help to the express the main subject of the song, as an angered voiced that is raising his voice against the abuses of the high priests.

Here is a video with the song:

Sleep with one eye open, gripping your pillow tight

The second song in my album is Enter Sandman, from the American Trash Metal band Metallica. It comes from one of their most famous albums, Metallica. This song is important to me because it is my favorite song from one of my favorite bands. Metallica for me was the gate to listening new music and not just what the major stations dared to broadcast.

Once, a friend of mine was trying to tag people with what he thought was the music that may represent each one. I was quite pleased when he said that he identified me with "Enter Sandman".

The lyric is about a character in European folclore. He is the sandman, or Morpheus, who delivers dreams to the people, but is not able to have own dreams. In the song, the interpretation of this leyend is twisted in a rather scary way. The Sandman is depicted as a man that delivers nightmares. I think that Metallica explores in a superb way the duality of this character that at first sight looks so good.

The song may be even based in a short movie, called The Sandman, in which the character is presented as a horrible and cruel animal.

Here is the short movie:



And this it the video of the song:

Walls of Isengard face the northern winds

The first song I'd like to present is called "Forked Height", from the Finnish metal band Battlelore. And why did i choose this one. Actually, because the band in general talk in all their songs about passages in Tolkien's books. As you could have imagined by the image in the cover, I love Tolkien's fiction. Since it has been a constant in almost all my life, well, I decided to publish this song.

The song is kind of an hymn to an important place in The Lord of the Rings: Isengard, the Gondorian fortress that Saruman the white ocuppied and that later on became his fortress in the war against Rohan.

To be honest, it is not one of my favorite songs. Actually, the band has a mediocre sound, but the album this song comes from, Songs of the Sword, is their best work. It has a good structure and the female clean vocals are really good (even though the male growlings are not the best I've heard in my life).

Below is the video with the song, please try to ignore the video, I couldn't get another version of the song in a streaming media

Description of a photograph

Today, I'd like to publish the description of a photograph. Well, actually what I wanted wasn´t to show my skills describing pictures but to show this great photo. It is from a website called Deviantart, which features works from amateur artists who can find in this website a site to share their work. The page isn't restricted to photograph. People who write, draw, or do animation with Flash, among others, can upload their works there.

This is the picture:


It is called "He told me to even breathe" and it comes from a the username ~joganelken.
The link to the picture is this one: ~http://joganelken.deviantart.com/art/He-told-me-not-to-even-breathe-105979084.

So, here comes the description:

The first thing that catches the eye in the picture is the girl. She is stained with blood. The blood covers her lips like if it dripped from there. Her hands are also filled with the red fluid, as other parts of her face.

It can also be noted that she is quite good natured. We can only see her face and part of her chest and arms. She has brown big eyes. She is also a brunette with long hair that falls in her forehead.

Her environment is depressive. She is lying on the floor that is stained with blood as well.

Her attitude is what may amaze mostly the observer. She appears to be in silence and calm, even though she is covered with blood. Putting aside her state, she appears to be fine. But she is kind of misterious as well. She is staring directly into the observer and is making a gesture with her hand, demanding silence from us who watch her.

The most bizarre thing of the picture is that she doesn't seem to be alarmed by anything, like if she was used to be in that state. The picture is remisniscent of a song by an Amercian band called Otep. The song is called "House of Secrets", and the lyrics sound like the kind of thing that the person in the picture would say.

CD

Well, this will be the beggining of a serie of posts that will have about ten songs. This songs won't be in my blog because they are my favorite or something like that, but because the lyrics or the music expresses something important for me. I had to design a cover for the album, and this was all I could do:

It shows my lack of skills with Paint.Net, but considering that I did it in like ten minutes, the result could have been way worse. The painting depicts the death of Smaug, the principal antagonist in Tolkien's The Hobbit. Smaug was a fierce big dragon who destroyed a complete kingdom but lately died because of the skill of an archer, who later became king.

Personal anecdote

The new English task was to write an "amusing and light-hearted anecdote from my childhood. I was surprised since I cannot remeber any anecdote of that kind. Maybe if I sit an hour and just think, I will get the best anecdote, but since it is class work, well, this is it. May be I blocked all my childhood memories.

When I was young (I don’t remember the age, I don’t use to bother about that kind of details) I wanted to learn to ride a bicycle. My dad, who is kind of a short-tempered man, couldn’t teach me so I passed quite some time without a bike. But one day my uncle, who is, well, weird, tried to teach me. To be honest I was kind of afraid. I’d never rode a bicycle until then. Well, I had, but with the training wheels, so it didn’t really count. At this point I’m pretty sure that you can notice that I’m not a brave person. But I got on the bike, started to advance, I started to raise my speed! Then I felt. But I tried until I was able to do it. But to be honest, I never really liked bikes after the whole experience.

The Shine

Today, I'd like to write about this really good film: The Shine. It is an Australian production from 1996. And what is so special about it? Well, maybe it just reminds me of Australia because the main character says the word "mate" quite a lot. But that is not the only reason. This film is something worth of watching.

This movie starts with a man (Geoffrey Rush) trying to go through heavy rain. This man tries to enter to a restaurant/pub that just closed. A kind waitress let him in and he tries to play a piano that is in the middle of the lounge. The man obviously has some kind of mental disease as he cannot speak correctly and appears to be as stubborn as a little kid. Who is this guy? He is David Helfgott, the protagonist of the movie.

The movie is about this man/kid who is a gifted pianist. He is invited by the most prestigious schools of his time to study with them. But his dad, who is kind of strict, doesn't want David to go since he thinks that will shatter his family. Not just that, but he also wants to teach him musical scores that are far beyond his ability.

The way the time is manipulated in the movie is really good. It consists in two different storylines: the one of the grown up David and the one with the child David. As the story advances, the young David storyline reaches the old one, or it seems so. But later on the young David storyline reaches the beginning of the adult storyline and from there just the older David's story is depicted until the end. It may result a bit difficult to understand if you haven't seen the movie, but it is unlikely that you will end in a knot due to the way the time is manipulated since the technique used is really good.

Also, the acting of Rush as David is superb. The way he stutters and fires all David's words is outstanding and it really helps to make the audience believes that David is mentally-ill. Also, is kind of hilarious when David does things that are not well-socially accepted like touching the breasts of women in public or jumping half-nude in a garden.

In conclusion, The Shine is a movie everybody should watch. It depicts David's in a realistic form. And what is more, it is really entertaining.

Letter to the editor of a newpaper

This is just the body of the letter directed to the editor of a diary from the Sunshine Coast. about the following article: http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/aug/23/too-many-deaths-our-roads/ It was easy for me to write from the perspective of a resident of the zone for two reasons: I lived there for a few months and also the subject of the article is quite universal.

(It still lacks the layout, I will fix it later)

I think that it is an excellent effort taking into people’s attention tragedies like these. It is important to make the people consider that the deaths may not be just occasioned by reckless drivers but by reckless pedestrians as well. Everybody should do his own part in the effort to stop accidents. People should be aware that it is easy to lose your life in just a mere distraction. Driving carefully should be an everyday action, and not just a reaction to the death of an anonymous person who we saw in our way home. Most of the people in this world won’t care about this kind of things until it happens to them. Then, they will raise an outcry against the people who they think are the guilty ones. But I think that almost each one of those persons related to accidents are guilty in some way or another, for not taking into account their and others security. And you may think that I’m saying this because I haven’t lost anybody. But I know the grief of loosing somebody and I think that we as a society need to stop this, or nobody will.

Battle of San Jacinto

Well, this is my second post. Pretty fast, isn't it?

I had to post a biography that wasn't written in an Encyclopedia style. So I choose Antonio López de Santa Anna, one of the most interesting and probably, hated characters in Mexican History.

He is known for loosing half of the country to the Americans and other things. He ruled the country eleven non.consecutive times. He standed for a lot of political movements as long as it helped himself.

I choose to write about San Jacinto battle instead of whole Santa Anna's life. I know that in an IB exam I would get less points, but this is just a homework, isn't it?

The style resembles Carlos Fuentes’ Aura and La muerte de Artemio Cruz. I don't think I would be able to write a whole book in this style since I'm not a really skilled writer (in English, in Sapnish I'm quite good), but it worked fairly well for a small passage.

There it goes:

You are staring at your bad armed troops. Are they going to be able to defeat the Texans? It is truth that you have defeated them in other times, but maybe you won’t be so lucky this time. You know that most of your soldiers are bad prepared. As you walk through your encampment, you can see the infected wounds, the wild eyes of your soldiers, and you can hear the fatigue in their voices.

Even though you received reinforcements, you haven´t still decided in beginning the attack. All of your generals think that you can make it. Your forces are almost the double than Houston’s, counting the fresh soldiers that just arrived. Your position is better than Houston’s. Your soldiers are better motivated due to your new victories that Houston’s. There is no reasonable cause to hold on a minute more! Why do you still feel uneasy about it?

Better forget about it, at least for a while. Let’s go and get some sleep. You are instructing that soldier so you won’t get bothered while you are getting some rest. Now that lousy dog is asking about the precautions! How he dares! You are the chief commander and you get neither orders nor advice from anybody!

You tell him that you have already made sure that the security of the camp is enough to detect the entrance to a rat into the perimeter. You are still confident that Houston won’t attack since he has no advantage over your army. Probably, you will slaughter every soldier that is in the other side of the river and you will be known forever as the greatest Mexican conqueror. So you won’t order any patrolling group and you will go.

Now you are sleeping. You are dreaming about El Lencero. You are there with your wife. You are peacefully dreaming… Suddenly, you see fire in your dream. You can hear cannons firing at the hacienda. But something seems to be wrong. There is something wicked about your dream. Suddenly you are not at your idle landscape, you are on a tent. It was just a dream. But it seems the explosions weren’t part of the dream!

Suddenly, you have to run out of your tent because it was about to be blown away by the artillery of your enemy. Your soldiers are being killed by Houston’s men. Houston’s men! You know what all those men swear to do due to the massacre in Goliat. You have to run! So, you start running. You see a fellow Mexican dead, but you know that you don’t care that all of this is your fault. You take his clothes with you and leave his dead corpse. But then, when you thought you were safe, you heard somebody telling you to stop right there. He is right behind you and you know that you won’t have a chance to flee…

...

And that is all for now. You can search on any textbook what happened next (but considering that Texas hasn't been part of México for quite a long time, the general outcome is pretty obvious).

MY very first post!

Well, so this is the beginning. I'm not really intending this as a really long project, but as long as the teacher requires it, this little effort of mine will continue alive.

This is the very first post I've ever done in my life, and, to be honest, I would have never started one if it wasn't because of the IB English teacher. Who knows, maybe I will end up liking this whole blogging thing and I will have one or two more blogs (if the school or my self-steem let me). But, right now I don't even know why do I even bother --this was optional, I could have just printed my homework and stop the birth of this blog--.

This is everything now, if you are out there, whoever are you, well, try to enjoy this.

P.S. I'm not an English native speaker, so you can expect some spelling and grammar mistakes, which I hope are minor mistakes.