The end

Well, I got my IB diploma, with a score of 33 out of 45. Pretty good, uh? Then, I have to say farewell to this blog, which was created just for the sole purpose of the IB. It is not like it was very active but I believe that this little effort of mine deserves at least some words to say goodbye.

I am rather pleased with the result, in fact, I'm rather happy, I had the best score among my classmates, which is pretty good considering that they probably studied like crazies while I did little or no effort to study, because I studied and worked my ass off when I needed to and not just before the exams.

Probably I won't use it to study abroad. It is just too expensive and I can get a good education here in my country. That doesn't mean that the IB was a waste of time. Sure, I had to spent time trapped with the same 7 classmates all these years, but it had its rewards. I can say that I really appreciate almost each one of the guys that went all these years with me. Sure it wasn't easy, but we made it!

And if the Diploma by itself won't help me, sure the education I recieved will be helpful. As a friend of mine said, I will be laughing while others are dying. I'm pretty sure of that since I'm smart myself and I was enhanced by the hard training of the IB.

And for this blog, this is it. I had to write something to close and actually having my results is a good reason to do so. Whatever comes next, I will be awaiting. Maybe scared, unstable and lonely but I still will be there for whatever comes. And if somebody has something against it, well, fuck it.

Then, asuming that I don't have any readers (if I have, then probably I know you, and I have to say: thank you for reading my blabbering) I say goodbye to this stage of my life. Trying to find a word to explain it wouldn't be enough. The only thing I can say is that I didn't expect any of this.

Enough!! If I continue, I will start with a lot of nonsense (like if I haven't). Thank you life, for the happiness, griefs, stress, laughs, etc, etc, etc...

And let's begin with what's next...

Terrorism

(Note: I know I was advised not to do this. But the whole point of a blog, as I understand, is expression. Nobody is going to kill me because some underrated blog with some badly written opinion)

Terrorism is a serious problem nowadays. Less than ten years ago, there was a terrorist attack in the United States on different parts of the country. Those attacks consisted on the hijacking of 4 commercial airplanes that were crashed in different strategic locations. One of those planes didn’t made it to its destiny and crashed in Pennsylvania. But the other three did succeed. One plane crashed on the Pentagon, a mayor intelligence building located in Washington D.C. And the other two crashed on the Twin Towers, in New York, taking the life of several thousand people.

After these attacks, everybody was suddenly aware of terrorism, which is listed as a serious threat by the UN. But terrorism was a problem centuries before of that. Modern terrorism, however, relies strongly in, as the name says, causing terror in the population, using to this purpose the massive media. But, why do these movements arise?

Usually, terrorism starts because there is an aggravated group that wants to make patent their discomfort towards some problem that exists in their territory. Those movements resort to violence because they see the violence as the only mean to achieve the change that they are pursuing. While some groups have tried to be pacific in their means, only the India had achieved their independence by pacific means. Most of the other movements used violence to achieve their goals.

There are several ways in which a group can feel threatened and pushed to terrorism. One of these is separatism. There are groups like the ETA in Spain that search for the independence of the Vasco zone of Spain. This terrorist group is responsible for a bombing in the train in Madrid.

Another cause of terrorism is a political disagreement. If the other politic voice is not given a forum to express their discomfort, they may choose to show their disagreement through the violence.

And the last cause that will be analyzed here is religion. Religion is also a major cause of terrorism. Sadly, we often see how the teachings of great men through all the world have been deformed or taken to literally and have caused the death of innocent people. These days, terrorism have been used as a weapon. And here we need to make the distinction that even though Muslim people have been labeled as the religious terrorists for excellence; there have been Catholic terrorists groups as the IRA.

Violence is not the way to solve problems. Even when the groups are faced with restrictions, they should try to seek pacific means. But if all else fails, then terrorism is the way to at least claim for attention. I’m not condoning the death of innocent people, but since it is only another action of war, it is inherent to any process that involves the killing on any side. Terrorism is no more cruel than the bombing of hospitals or the repression that the so called ‘victims’ of terrorism inflict on the terrorists.

The tail of the lizard

Once upon a time, all the lizards lived in fear. Most of the animals used to hunt them, because they were easy to catch because of their long tails. The eagle ate lizards, the mongoose ate lizards, the wolves ate lizards and even some species of rats could fight and successfully eat one of these.

That was until a lizard got angry and said that he was going to stop the carnage that was upon them. So, with hastiness and secrecy, he started to create a decoy to use in the place of his tail. It looked realistic enough and then, focusing his mind somewhere else, he cut his own tail. Then, he wore the decoy instead of his real tail.

So, he went out, to a zone known for the dangers that dwelled there in the shape of eagles, mongooses, wolves and some rats. He walked to open grounds, confident of his invention. Then, when an eagle saw him and decided to attack, the eagle trapped the lizard by the tail. The eagle was happy with the success when suddenly, the only thing in the eagle’s claws was the lizard’s tail, but there was no lizard fixed to it. The lizard ran and laughed at the eagle’s foolishness. After that, he showed his invention and reduced the death toll of the lizards. That’s the reason the lizard’s let their tail go when they are caught from it.

Robin Hood

Option 2
The figure of the outlaws has been a recurrent topic in literature worldwide. These outlaws (the ones that appear in literature, not every single outlaw) are basically people who committed a crime that is unfairly punished. As an example, we have Robin Hood. Robin Hood is perhaps one of the most famous outlaws in literature. This character came straight from England in the Middle Age. Robin Hood is famous because he robbed the rich to help the poor people. He was also a skilled warrior.
Now, why was Robin Hood’s figure so attractive? Even today the image of an outlaw, who lived wildly in the forest, got his own means of survival and that so selflessly helped poor people to carry the burden that meant to be a servant, is extremely popular. It may actually be the idea of somebody helping people and putting to the service of others skills that otherwise would easily grant him the power of those he always fought. While the people in the upper levels only cared about them, there was an almost lonely archer and his band that tried to change the situation.
The figure of an outlaw is not exclusive of England. Besides the famous marksman of Nottingham there have been other outlaws that have had wide recognition through the years. Without going too far, I can easily talk about outlaws in this side of the Atlantic. Probably the outlaws in Mexican literature are way less famous than Robin Hood, but they can still be pointed out. A famous example came in the book Los bandidos de Río Frío of Manuel Payno. These bandits tried to fight their poverty by robbing every single person that was a possible victim. Even though these bandits were way less romantic than Robin Hood, they are still outlaws and drew a lot of attention and sympathy in their time.
All of these bandits are possible in every single way. Even thought Robin Hood would certainly be even more sanguinary than the Robin Hood that is depicted in his worst histories, the possibility of a man that helps his people or fights injustice is always there. It is truth that probably anybody that chooses the better path would face worst decisions than the ones that appear in the books, but even with that people will fight against injustice. It has been shown through various revolutions trough the whole world.

The lady, or the tiger?

After the lad opened the door, the fiery tiger came out of it. For a second, the lad looked the princess in the eye. His face didn't reflect any regret at all. A faint grin appeared in his face. But before he even uttered a sound, the fangs of the tiger were on him. A second later he was torn apart and nothing but a bloody pulp remained of what once a young man.

The princess felt in her chair, but didn't let even a sigh to be heard. Her father stood proud beside her for a moment and then left. When he disappeared from her sight, the princess burst into tears. She thought for a moment that she had made the wrong decision, but when she saw the eyes of her lover, she knew she made the best decision and that any of them didn't want to be separated nor to escape from their star-crossed love, since they both knew that the princess would follow him to the paths of the dead that very night.

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.