From my point of view, my best writting contribution to my blog was the Gantz's recommendation because I felt proud of myself after finishing it. It was truly a good post since the content was very mature, the vocabulary was appropiate and I looked for some words in the dictionary, the structure was correct and the grammar okay. However, I think that BioShock's and Silent Hill's recommendations were accurate posts too.
Finally, about my oral presentations I don't think they were good enough to pick a best one. In addition, all of them were average not excellent and they're almost the same, I feel nervous and I mess them up. However, If I have to choose one It'll be the first term's one.
First of all, my earliest written task was an E-mail to my teacher and my last one was the Japan's description. The main differences between both compositions are the lack of connectors in my initial writting, the use of more complex grammar structures, the addition of more formal words and synonyms...etc. The only element that back then was still okay is the structure, whereas the maturity of the content has greatly increased and so the vocabulary and grammar.
Regarding the oral presentations, the first one was an oral presentation with Aaron and Yuri and the final one was about my research paper. Both presentations are pretty similar, however, the principal contrast between them is that lately I've been feeling more secure when I have to talk in front of my classmates and the improvement of my language variety.
Batxillerat's end is nigh and as a consequence I should start thinking of a place that I'd to visit this summer. One of my favorite options is Japan, because I've been astonished by all the breathtaking and varied places that I have watched in films or photographs.
First of all, I'd like to visit old Japanese temples because of the serenity, quietness and peaceful atmosphere of this mystical buildings. In addition, the integrity of the temple with his environment is usually excellent due to the nature which perfectly combines with the Japanese mystical buildings.
Besides, cities like Tokyo look pretty cool for me, the crowded streets, full of lights and many diverse places to have fun. However, I'm mainly interested in Japan since their culture is very peculiar and there are lots of modern areas with advanced technology and art.
In conclusion, Japan is a place with a mixture of unalike spaces and all of them seem very intriguing in a different way.
Human rights are universal moral values or norms that determine how human behaviour should be like and what do we own for the simple fact of being a humans (inherit rights) , and in addition they cannot be taken away because it's against international laws regardless of the individual's status.
Most of the ideas that energizedthe human rights movement came as a product of the Second World War consequences and above all The Holocaust. Therefore, The United Nations adpoted the Universal Declaration of The Human Rights which consists of thirty articles and it's formed of civil, political, economical, social, cultural... rights.
As a whole, The Universal Declaration of The Human Rights is composed of thirty articles, but I'm going to focus only in one of them, the article 5: no one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
I understood all the words of the video, the vocabulary was very simple. This human right isn't respected in some schools (I think that in every school but I don't want to be so negative) because of bullying and in some police investigations, in order to get what they want cops may hit, torture innocent people. However, from my point of view, this right is respected in many places as normal people don't hit others.
"Education is about inspiring one's mind not just filling their head"
From my point of view, education shouldn't be just reminding facts and dates that has no use, in contrast it should be similar to Rousseau's conception of education, in other words, by ourselves, not filling our minds, but helping us to develop our mind with only the necessary assitence. In addition, the only way that we'll truly create new and innovatine stuff is if we let future generations -well, and everyone else- think by themselves, not what we want to. In other words, they just have to let everyone the freedom to think, new ideas, inspiring them...and so education doesn't have to make us remember unuseful information in order to stress us, this isn't really education, It's programming machines full of unneccessary data.
Alien is a
horror and science fiction movie directed by Riddle Scott and starring
Sigourney Weaver. This film has been hailed by many filmmakers by the fact that
revolutionized the world of cinema using a few decorated settings and very well
implemented ideas.
The story
focuses on the crew of the Nostromo, the ship ends its space round and is about
to land on earth with all its crew members in a state of cryonics, when without
knowing the central computer captures a signal of apparent relief and changes its
course the origin of it. Then, the crew of the Nostromo wake up angry and have
no other choice but to get off the planet from which comes the call and find
out what's going on. Getting off, an alien with a hand shape sticks on the face
of one of the crew members and then he enters in a state of coma. After
researching the hand, they discover that the shaped hand alien was no danger itself,
but what he introduced his victim in the stomach. Therefore, the larvae grow
into the "eighth passenger" of the Nostromo.
One of the
elements that make this film a masterpiece is its atmosphere, characterized by
long dimly lit corridors with gases, emergency lights, metallic ceilings and floors and windows with nothing but the empty
image of the dark space. In addition, the atmosphere was frightening because we
knew that a very powerful monster was loose and only six people had to flee from
him or stop it.
Regarding
the immersion, it was easy to identify with the characters because they were
normal people who were caught in a situation of life or death, unlike other
genre films that are rely on highly advanced technology and characters that are
difficult to empathize with. However, there are many positive points since this
film a classic that everyone should
watch.
Controversial
new pension and tax reforms were passed by Greece's parliament on Monday.
The
measures are needed to unlock further international bailout money, to be
discussed at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday. But they
are unpopular with Greek anti-austerity campaigners and unions.
"We
have an important opportunity before us for the country to break this vicious
cycle, and enter a virtuous cycle," Mr Tsipras told MPs. Monday, he
said, "is a very important day. After six years, the Eurogroup will meet
to discuss debt relief". The meeting
will talk about new debt relief measures with a view to avoiding the prospect
of a default in July, when Greece is due make its next major repayment to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank.
The reforms
agreed by parliament include:
-Changes would not affect the majority of pensioners and moved towards
a "sustainable" system.
-Before the
vote, protesters in Athens threw petrol bombs at police, who responded with
tear gas.
-Trade
unions say the country cannot bear another round of austerity.
From my point of view, since 5 o 6
years ago we’ve been in recession almost around the world. One of the countries
that have suffered this crisis the most is Greece.
The Issue
is that Greece has to ask for loans and with these loans they only achieve more
debts. This is why Tsipras says that they are in a vicious circle.
"Colors" is the fifth studio album by the progressive metal and death metal band Between the Buried and Me, released on September 18th of 2007 through the label Victory Records. The American band brought out many different influences within the structure of the songs featured on the album, such as jazz, acoustic pop, arena rock, and bluegrass influences.
"Colors" is an album in which the concept of division isn’t really clear. The cuts between songs only serve to separate the tracks; the album is intended more as a work with a beginning, an end and its various movements, in which we travel to a journey throughout the progressive sound.
The album starts with a soft piano that leads into a small introduction entitled "Foam Born (a): the Backtrack" and goes up the intensity until it ends in a metalcore outburst and where we can already guess some progressive dyes then they have great prominence on the album. .. At this point we dive fully into "(b) the Decade of Statues". This topic is completely gender, metalcore without respite but with ultimately progressive guitars. It’s in "Informal Gluttony" where the most unexpected elements begin to be heard. To begin with, the intro, which sounds mystical, leads his way to the heavy forcefulness that characterizes the group. And yet, two minutes song peak surprise us with a melodic chorus that we can perfectly relate to any group of indie rock.
"Sun of Nothing" and "Ants of the Sky" are the most experimental duo. In the last 23 minutes, between the two songs we can witness a large repertoire with unparalleled comings and goings: fast metal riffs, acoustic and vocal melodies, melancholy passages ... And long scales that have been directly influenced by groups with epic progressive rock of the 70s. "Prequel to the Sequel" follows in the line metalcore and progressive mixes, "Viridian" is a small stop along the way to"White Walls", which is the climax, with a devastating and intensive start that doesn't stop until the end. In addition it concludes the album with a track of four minutes, one of those that make history.
Last 6th of May, Kenya announced that they won't host more refugees, which contradicts their initial commitment respect the welcome of refugees. Kenya is the home of more of 463000 Somali refugees. However, the interior ministry principal secretary stated that they will close their refugee camps in order to not to jeopardize the national security.
The policy regarding the host of refugees in my country is very ambiguous, basically they remain outside of these matters. Nevertheless, from my point of view a nice way of dealing with this issue but a very utopian would be that us, the citizens host some families in order to help them at least temporarily.
BioShock is
a first-person shooter developed by Irrational Games , published on August 21th
of 2007 in North America for the Windows operating system and the Xbox 360
console, three days later in some European countries and Australia, and August
31th in Spain.
Regarding
to BioShock’s plot, imagine that your plane crashes in the middle of the
Pacific, you don’t know where you are, hardly you swim and then you arrive to a
lost lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. The gates of Rapture, the utopian
underwater city, they open in order to let us know the horror what lurks behind its
walls. So, the nightmare begins.
BioShock,
based its charm on the exploration and immersion of the fascinating history of
Rapture and the truthfulness and cruelty of a wild and violent world that doesn’t
discriminate among its victims which are men, women and even girls.
On the other hand, the sound effects
are another factor that makes the experience of visiting Rapture great. All
weapons sound powerful, and shootings are a delight to the ears for its
sharpness. But the real star of the sonorous shots is Rapture and its habitants.
The
constant crackle of water pressure on the giant vaults of Rapture, the sounds
of psychopaths wandering and singing in the streets, the awkward but thunderous
walk of the Big Daddies and endearing but scary barefoot walking of the Little
Sisters on the cold surfaces are so authentic, terrifying and unpayable. The atmosphere of a video game consists of both what we see and what we
hear, and Bioshock is an excellent example.
In conclusion, in this recommendation I've basically talked about the audiovisual and story issues of the game. However, BioShock has an excellent gameplay, but It may feel a bit rough compared with FPS such as Call of Duty or Halo. To sump up, I highly recommend BioShock, It's an unique and satisfying experience.
Persona 4 is a japanese videogame published by Atlus for the PlayStation 2 and it was released in 2008. Despite being a little bit old and not as famous as other American role playing games, I highly recommend playing this game. Not only does it have a great story, but it also has amazing characters, a great soundtrack and art work. The game takes place in Inaba, a fictional rural japanese town, and it begins with the murder of a famous journalist, but there is no clue to be found of who the culprit might be. Therefore, the main
focus of the game revolves around Personas, avatars projected from one's inner
self that resemble mythological figures and represent the facets worn by
individuals to face life's hardships. Each Persona possesses its own skills, as
well as strengths and weaknesses to certain attributes. So, the protagonists must fight to pass some dungeons and progresse with their investigation.
Silent hill
2 is a survival horror videogame published by Konami for the PlayStation 2,
developed by Team Silent and its release date was the 24th of September of
2001.
First of
all, Silent Hill 2 marked a turning point in its genre and for the next Silent
Hill games, unlike other games that wanted to scare us to death, on the
contrary Silent Hill 2 bet for a new kind of psychological horror in video
games. It's clearly one of the best examples of horror modern in any media. If
that weren't enough, Silent Hill's sequel is an evident example of how a game
with good storytelling (full of symbolism) and true survival horror experience
should be. As a consequence, this masterpiece moved many players more than a
decade ago. It's hard to believe that Silent Hill 2 has more than a decade,
especially since it looks very fresh and contemporary. Furthermure, without a powerful
graphics engine, Silent Hill 2 managed to be visually pleasing, all this due to
its art direction and its excellent atmosphere.
Moreover,
the idea of playing as an anti-hero like James, his dark secrets and hidden
past was something completely new at the time and it’s even nowadays. Silent
Hill 2 was the first game in the series to show the existence of own torments
of each character, double personalities and psychological traumas materialized.
Few games have captured horror in such an intimate way; it treated sexual
themes without showing meaningless obscenities. Silent Hill 2 didn't need to
scare with jump scares or excessive gore or sex to be called "adult".
The game managed to reach the depths of the player, conveying feelings of
loneliness, nostalgia, melancholy and intrigue. It's a horror game, but it
attacked our most vulnerable side: our hearts with a devastating history; and
our psyche, posing a constant intrigue that will keep us hooked on the game
until we finish it.
On the
other hand Silent Hill 2 might have some negative points such as the short
duration of the game or the rough gameplay. However, from my point of view this
masterpiece has the appropriate length and the gameplay is the right for a
desperate atmosphere.
In
conclusion, Silent Hill 2 is a must play because of his excellent storytelling,
immersive atmosphere, the depressive soundtrack which fits perfectly in every
moment and his importance regarding the evolution of the genre.
In Japan, the government have taken measures to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (they are called LGBT and they're the most vulnerable group to bullying) students from bullying, however, their methods of preventing bullying haven't been really useful, that's why in 2016 they're debating in order to changer they policy against this problem, which is growing progressively as it's spreading in japanese schools.
Regarding to our country, I think that bullying is present in almost every school and more than we think. I know a case in my school about a boy who wants to be a girl and, as it's expected he receives insults for being different. In my opinion, we as students can't do much to prevent bullying, our only options are telling it to the teachers or the police, that's why I'm not pretty sure about a useful way of helping people that suffers from bullying.
Gantz is a seinen manga created by Hiroya
Oku in 2000. This japanese comic has a total of 37 volumes and the last
one was published in 2013. In addition, due to his popularity it has been
adapted into many different media such as cinema, videogame and anime.
Hiroya's most famous work combines action,
science fiction and personal relationships in contemporary japan. Gantz's main
plot focuses on Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, two students that die in their
attempt of saving a drunk man who fell in the subway tracks. After that,
they're instantly summoned in an apartment with unknown people where there's a
black sphere named Gantz. Then, the sphere tells them that they're dead and
they have to obey what the individual inside the sphere comands (killing aliens), in order to
save their lives, but only if they survive.
From my point of view, Gantz is a great
manga, very enjoyable and not boring at all. What I liked most were the
characters, most of them are flat characters except for Kei Kurono, although for me,
the most interesting one was Joichiro Nishi is a veteran of the Gantz world and
he's also smart, selfish and has a social Darwinist approach to life. But, why
-in my opinion- has he been an interesting character? Mainly because of his hate
towards society, his craving for the arrival of the apocalypse and his
background story. Another brilliant aspect of the manga were some of the moral
decisions they have choose because it left me thinking. Another thing worth
noting was the drawing made by computers which gave realism to the backgrounds
and immersion into the characters.
Nevertheless, some things may not like to
everyone, for instance: the extreme use of violence which is excessive
sometimes and the unnecessary and yet abundant nudity in the whole series. But
in my case, I appreciated the ensemble.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Oku's comic as
well as I don't recommend it for certain people that aren't pleased with
extreme violence and nudity, but for those that don't mind, they'll probably
find in Gantz a very entertaining reading.
According to a small US study, playing 3D videogames just 30 minutes per day may help our memory. Researchers made 69 novice gamers play Angry birds and Super Mario 3D world for a half-hour daily. Only the ones that played the 3D games had memory improvements. So, It’s
possible playing these games stimulated the hippocampus region of the brain.
To see how
the type of game might impact cognition, the researchers recruited people 18 to
22 years old who claimed not to have prior games experience and asked them to play throughout 10 days. Before and after the period, the participants took memory tests.
They were
given a series of pictures of everyday objects to study. Then, they were shown
images of the same objects, new ones and others that differed only slightly from the original items and asked to categorise them.
Stark said that the 12%
improvement seen with the test scores for 3D gamers is roughly the same amount that memory tends to decline between the ages of 45 and 70, the researchers
note.
It’s also
possible that the tests done in young people might not yield the same results
in older players, or that inexperienced players might not have the same results
as seasoned gamers. According to the researchers 3D video games might benefit older adults suffering from memory loss,
Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
From my point of view, If videogames really improve our memories It wouldn't be a bad idea to play half-hour at school, because many of the things we study aren't based on understanding but memory in some subjects, such as history or philosophy history...
Donnie Darko is an American film shot in 2001. It's a psychological thriller set in the late 1988. It tells the story of Donnie, a teenager who has visions on a sinister giant rabbit named Frank who predicts the doomsday .
From my point of view this film
is truly unique and stands out from all over blockbuster titles, with a very
original premise to time-travel that feels so real and different compared to
other sc-fi flicks. I absolutely enjoyed every moment of Donnie Darko every
performance was spot on, absolutely stunning movie.
Finally, I recommend this movie although It isn't for everyone, but if you surely want to enjoy a great and different film, then, you're wasting your time reading my opinion.
Jimi
Hendrix, the ultimate guitar hero, was born into poverty in Seattle in 1942 and
he died in London aged just 27 after a hedonistic lifestyle. Now, fans have the
chance to see what his bedroom in his London home looked like.
The
property in Mayfair has been restored over a two-year period to look as close
as possible as it did when he lived there in 1968 and 1969. 23 Brook Street in
Mayfair has been fully kitted out with feathers, tapestry rugs and a ton of
vinyl records in a 2.5-million-pound refit.
For many
years, it's been seen as a place of interest. In 1997, an English Heritage blue
plaque, the first ever given to a pop star, was posted on the wall outside the
apartment.
The
property is right next door to Handel House where composer Handel lived for 36
years during the mid-1700s.
The entire
third floor will be open to the public as well as an exhibition that shows the
musician’s movements between 1968 and 1969. The building forms part of Handel
and Hendrix, a museum devoted to two musicians who were neighbours but two
centuries apart.
In my opinion, it's kinda cool to see how was his bedroom was. However, I admire him for his music, so this "museum" it's more an anecdotic thing than something outstanding.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, released in Japan as simply Persona 3 is the fourth game of the series Persona. It was developed and distributed by Atlus for the PlayStation 2 console.
In Persona
3, we assume the role of a high school student, who was orphaned as a young boy,
and has recently transferred to Gekkoukan High School on Port Island. Only days
after he arrives at the school dorm, he is attacked by a Shadow. The assault
awakens his Persona, Orpheus, his only chance at defeating this creature of the
night. He soon discovers that he shares this special ability with other
students at his new school. From them he learns of the Dark Hour, a hidden time
that exists between one day and the next, swarming with Shadows that have been
slowing claiming victims known as The Lost - poor souls who have inexplicably
been turned into walking zombies. Under the supervision of school chairman
Shuji Ikutsuki, he joins his new friends in confronting this evil threat...
With your school as the primary battlefield, you are forced to juggle between
two lives: student by day, defender against evil by night. And your greatest
challenges await you on the eve of each full moon.
With a successful approach, an exceptional finish and deep and really cared development, Persona 3's great plot offers a full RPG, very long and, and in some sense a visual novel. It represents the routine of a student like any other, but also the excitement to end a threat that haunts the hometown where he lives. Many issues are treated in this game, such as: death, suicide, finding a meaning in our lifes...etc, the dark tone is matched perfectly with is wide range OST (Jazz, electronical music, pop, rock...).An experience, with special emphasis on our relationship with others, that offers one of the best video games to be made redundant the PlayStation 2.
“We will go
on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie or whoever the hell they throw up there!”
A night of
big surprises in the race for the White House – the vote did not go quite as
expected. Republican Donald Trump was swept aside by Texas Senator Ted Cruz,
but the real estate billionaire remained optimistic.
"We
will go on to get the Republican nomination and we will go on to easily beat
Hillary or Bernie or whoever the hell they throw up there!"
Leading up
to the vote, Cruz visited nearly every state while Trump shunned the debates,
choosing to hold his own rallies which could have hurt his campaign in the long
run. His supporters, however, were still positive.
"I'm
disappointed. I really am. But in a way, I'm not because we did make a very
good showing, and we worked hard, and we know we worked hard, and he was
pleased, even with the showing that we did have. And it's on to New
Hampshire,"
Indeed on
to New Hampshire where Trump has a stronger showing, according to opinion polls.
On the
Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is neck and neck with Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders in a race that's too close to call. One thing is clear after the Iowa caucuses: there's a long, volatile election season ahead. In my opinion, regarding the current political state of the U.S., I hope that he loses. Because I think It's regrettable that someone with his ideology has the intention of governing a supposedly free country. Furthermore It's also unfortunate that there are so many people that support him...
