Evaluation of your blog experience

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you. Beatrix Potter

Tin Phones

When home telephones were the luxury of a few fortunate owners--quite popular and respected in the neighbourhood--kids used to play with a more economic and democratic device: a "telephone" made up of two empty tins connected by a long string. You spoke to one empty tin while your playmate listened to you with one ear on the other empty tin and then spoke back to you... that was communication!

From the caveman onwards, communication has always been used as a means to highlight his presence on earth, to survive, to transfer acquired knowledge, to create links with future generations... Proof of this is the presence of petroglyphs, prehistoric paintings in caves, graphs carved on stone... In time, writing became a usual form of communication.

Chinese Manuscript

Chinese writing probably started as far back as 1500 BCE and is perhaps one of the oldest means of communication. The Latin alphabet was created about 600 BC. Writing manuscripts in ink became then a common practice. At first, manuscripts were handwritten and replicated by uneducated people who could not read what they wrote, thus information and secrets were conveniently kept for the privileged, educated people.

A long-time passed until Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1438-1468) changed the primitive printing techniques to a breakthrough that persisted in time: he invented a movable type printing machine that permitted to reproduce a significant number of issues. He could not get funds to continue his project and passed away without living the splendour of his revolutionary device, but he certainly foresaw its importance and, most likely, figured out a world with books moulding an illustrated man.

First Mobile

Printed material in the form of letters and books has provided man a powerful source of communication and learning that has been essential in his progress and has added modernity to older, less sophisticated ways of communication, such as the manuscripts used by our ancestors to transfer knowledge; the messenger pigeons, aka homing pidgeons, used as mail carriers; the smoke signals used by castaways and Indians; the Morse code used to ask for help mainly in war; ...

In the last decades, technological advances have significantly changed the way we communicate and transfer knowledge to one another with inventions such as mobiles (especially smartphones) and computers. We started by sending e-mails and we are now reading electronic books, downloading scientific papers, creating webpages and websites, writing blogs, twitting, using facebook...

J. Gutenberg would probably be in a state of despair observing this chaotic, yet organized, way of communication...magical (not mechanical) machines delivering printed documents in seconds... "e-mails" disappearing from the screen of a strange box and sent to people in other countries...friends in front of the box chatting and shopping... guys reading their facebook...

However, using the internet and its applications is currently a necessity, an opportunity and a pleasure. I confess that via blogging I have enjoyed both writing the posts and reading yours. Blogging is a public, yet personal way of expressing yourself, allowing you to have a glimpse into my world and allowing me to share part of yours. I hope you have enjoyed this blogging activity as much as I have so that it continues to be useful to improve your writing abilities in English.

Now it's your turn:

What you think about the experience in general
How much you feel your writing skills have developed
What you would like to include in the future
What else you would like to write about

Wordcount: 200
Make comments on 3 of your classmates' posts and the teacher´s post

a) Our Amazing Human Body : Our Smart Brain et al... OR b) Mental diseases or disorders

"Everyone walks by him, moving randomly and watching nowhere...images like thieves moving in his mind come and go...perhaps illusions that will fade away any minute..."

In times of loneliness, our imagination is a faithful company. We create our own friends who will be what we want them to be: someone to talk to, to love, to care, to hate, to dismiss, to feel pity on, to play with...

Our smart brain provides input to satisfy our needs. This situation lasts for some time until someone from the actual world talks to you and you realize your own existence and importance. A smiling face in front of you can take you away from your abstract world and be a good company for a while. But, if you are not in the mood,  you shortly afterwards look through that face and immerse again in your own imaginary world. The smiling face says goodbye and fades away, while you only want to dream away...

Today is an awesome day. Early this morning I realized that the sun shines over me, the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, birds fly and sing, the weather is warmer, people walk and greet me. I smile back and say nice words to everyone along the street. I am in the mood for smiling, talking, touching, watching, feeling. I call a friend to have lunch with... It seems that my brain has shifted from the inner, private space to the outer, commonplace; perhaps it needs input to enrich its library with information from the outside world.

At noon, I enjoy my lunch, sometimes a brunch, in a cosy cafeteria; a good-looking girl waits on me and brings a dish that seems to be better than earlier ones. By the time I get home, I recall the activities done with a feeling of being in command, in closer contact with the real world.

But I wonder if I was in command of my decisions. Scientists have observed that mental processes occurring in our brain are faster than our (sometimes crucial) thoughts or decisions, e.g., when crossing a street, you jump away from a high-speed car before you realize that you are in danger of being hit by the car, even before thinking of the danger, otherwise you might be dead.

What about lunch, sex, sleep,....? Hormones and neurotransmitter cells are in charge of stimulating us to take some actions and others to delay or stop them. Thus, when we have lunch, dopamine is produced in the brain, giving you a sense of pleasure and stimulating you to go on eating. If you have eaten too much, another kind of neurotransmitter counteracts dopamine and you stop eating.

A few neurotransmitter cells

Significant changes occur during childhood, but as teenagers, and later as adults, you feel the urge of touching, kissing, loving the opposite sex. Why? Hormones and neurotransmitters are sending messages to brain cells to trigger the sex drive that will eventually lead to reproduction, and thus preservation of the human species... and here serotonin, another neurotransmitter, keeps you pleased as oxytocin and vasopressin help in creating a stronger bond with your partner.

Adrenaline is another neurotransmitter that plays an important role in our lives. Just an example: if you have been severely injured, this neurotransmitter gives you enough strength to withstand acute pain until help comes and/or pain subsides...

So, if my brain et al. are in charge of most of the living processes, what decisions can I make?

I want to believe that I make the most important decisions in life, such as the kind of person I want to be, the girl I marry, the healthy dish I should have for lunch, the kind of book I want to read, the places I want to visit, the exercises I want to do to keep fit,  the number of hours I want to sleep, the career I want to study, ....These are part of my free will.

And I always will be grateful to the mental processes occurring in the 1.4 kg brain encased in the skull of my head, which is the major organ of the central nervous system and controls most processes and permits that I enjoy living.

Help our faithful brain et al., by having a healthy diet and doing exercises, preventing stroke and other undesirable illnesses.

Now it's your turn:

A) Our Amazing Human body
What organ(s)/system(s)/substance(s) /sense(s) of the human body is (are) amazing to you. Why.
What role it plays
Where it is located.
What size it has.
What illnesses can alter its/their normal functioning.
How you can help to keep it healthy.

OR

B) Mental Diseases or Disorders
What it consists of.
What triggers the disease or disorder.
Why you chose it.
Where (countries, continents, places) it is commoner.
Who suffer from it mostly (males/females)
How the disease affects the functioning of other organs of the human body.
Add any additional information required to make more attractive your post


Total Wordcount: 190 words minimum.
Remember to write comments on 3 classmates' posts and on the teacher´s post.

The most enjoyable subject...

  In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they are not.

Albert Einstein

The career or profession of your life is always an elusive, but important issue. As a young adult, my parents, friends, magazines, institutions in the city,... were the source of information. Nowadays, you find accurate information at home in front of a computer or even on your smartphone.

You click here and there to find information about the university that deserves your presence, the career that seems the most promising, that has the best study programme, one whose prestige might be helpful to find a good job, an institution with well-known researchers, an institution that ensures a brilliant future...

Chemistry Lab

Eventually, you find a suitable career and, filled with content, start attending classes waiting for the best class ever and, at the beginning, this seems to happen with most subjects. As time goes by, this excitement changes to a state of normality that persists until you eventually graduate and, on looking back, appreciate their contribution to your personal growth.

In your mind, however, you shall dearly keep a small bunch of subjects, activities in classrooms, in laboratories, activities that had a special flavour because of the contents... the classmates... the teaching staff... the season of  the year... and/or any other activity that made quite an impression on you.

Safety Chemistry  Lab

Laboratory activities demand most of our attention and usually strengthen teamwork, improving the desirable friendliness of students with a common goal. Thus, lab work becomes quite attractive, particularly to those eager to set up equipment to do, for example, simple distillations, solvent extraction... Others feel satisfaction upon observation and study of optical phenomena, such as dispersion of white light through prisms, reflection, diffraction.

I actually enjoyed learning chemistry/physics/biology in the labs when I was in high school. The possibility of observing actual phenomena with the naked eyes and also doing my own experiments gave me an indescribable pleasure that led me to observe with curiosity all the processes occurring in our daily life.

Yet, theoretical activities in the classroom also caught my attention; especially my teacher of biology who created an atmosphere of mystery to uncover the "truth" under common living processes, who made me dream of the varied "worlds" existing in our daily life. Thus, the theoretical data ranged from solid ground information in a particular issue to doing exercises, analyses, and other learning activities.

So, theory or practice? I say both.

Now it's your turn:

Write about your favourite subject this term.

• Name of the subject:
• Describe what you do in classes
• Explain why you like the subject
• State whether your classes are mostly theoretical and/or practical
• What makes the subject interesting

Other considerations that you might use:

• People participating in the teaching activities (teacher(s), auxiliaries, ...)
• Importance of teaching people in your choice.
• Importance of the subject matter in your decision...
• The approximate number of students in the class.
• Main contents you have seen

Word Count: 180
Make comments on 3 of your partners' posts, plus comment on your teacher's post

(a) An expert on your field OR (b) a career-related website

(a) Beautiful minds ...

“All of us, at some point in life, get brilliant ideas...only a few of us have the courage to take the next step.”

Manoj Arora

I  want to believe that all of us have the potential to become the individuals that we want to be; that we all have been born equal in this wild world; that races are equally important; that the preciousness of life is enriched by the presence of man... 

"I 'm going to be a ... when I grow up", we used to say when we were kids.

In fact, we are non-graduated scientists, philosophers, and artists. Our ability as scientists is clearly visible when we decide what to do first and what goes on next. We apply deep thought as kid scientists to envision what materials we can use to build, for example, a castle within our bedroom. We gather information from magazines, friends, parents and then materials to fulfill our project: chairs, blankets, pillows and any other suitable stuff to make of our castle a comfortable place... a kid's castle, using the ingenuity of grown-up men.

Brains at work

Like professional philosophers, we enquire about life... where I come from, when we will travel to the moon, how life on other planets is, how I ... an endless number of questions to satisfy our need for knowledge; and then, we feel ready to state all our hypotheses: "when I grow up I'll become an astronaut, travel to Mars and ... "

Kids' ability as artists is widely accepted, particularly by parents, relatives, primary school teachers..., perhaps not by their peers (other kids) who are inclined to think they are better artists and do have a gift at drawing, dancing, painting...; however, we feel confident with the severe, truthful and indulgent response of our closest elders.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci  (1452-1519) was apparently one of those kids who grew up and developed his capabilities to the highest level: a great artist, scientist, engineer, inventor...His hallmark is found in invaluable paintings, such as Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Virgin and Child; in numerous drawings with unprecedented information on human anatomy;  in outstanding sketches and drawings of devices and machines that would later be invented, such as the helicopter and parachute and so on... His works have transcended in time and reflect the artistic and scientific nature of his brilliant mind.

Stephen Hawkings 

If Leonardo is the expression of a restless person, I cannot but feel a profound admiration for the work done by one of the most famous theoretical physicists and cosmologists of our time: Stephen Hawking who was born in 1942, in Oxford, England and passed away in 2018. He suffered from a motor neuron disease, known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that paralysed him because of muscle deterioration. However, his brilliant mind floats in the universe of knowledge, permitting him to understand, discuss, and explain complex issues to his peers and even write easy-to-understand books, such as "A Brief History of Time", to laymen like me. 

Brilliant minds have always been at my reach when I look for information to prepare, for example, exercises in scientific English; they are everywhere, moving here and there, present in paintings, books, videos, talking to you, listening to you... and also seeing you from the other side of the mirror ... as you are also an important building block of this world of knowledge and ingenuity...

Now it's your turn:

Choose (a) OR(b)

(a) Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?

• Who she/he is. (short biography)
• What she/he has done. (examples of their work)
• Why you like her/him.
• Include his/her image

OR

(b) Write about a career-related website that you enjoy visiting.

You have to:

• provide the link
• describe the website (sections, features,etc)
• say how often you visit the site
• explain why you like the site.

Minimum number of words: 170  

Add comments to 3 of your classmates’ posts

plus a comment on your teacher's post

About love, pets and friendship

Man's best friend

People say that dogs are man's best friend... In my case, however,  my first memory goes back to a small green parrot, Enicognathus ferrugineus, that is usually found in the south of Chile. This Austral parakeet lived free in my house, walked around  all the rooms, fed on my mum's hands and had a sharp voice that was heard from distant places. The longer wings had been cut so that it couldn't fly away. By then, I was in primary school and I remember as it were yesterday when my little friend combed my hair, eyelashes and eyebrows to wake me up on weekends. 

It also used to walk on my shoulders and observed enthusiastically how I did my homework. One day, at lunch, it was on my mum's shoulders observing with distant interest the conversation of my family and friends, so I decided to bother it by touching its long tail; it moved towards me, protesting for such an uncomfortable situation; I did it again and again a little time later ... it moved restlessly, was really upset and protested by using its powerful voice... I was told not to bother again, so I focussed my attention on my dish. My little friend looked at me peacefully, showing sympathy... then it quietly walked from my mum's shoulders to mine in a clear demonstration of affection..., all of a sudden, it gave a bite on my face and ran away....my little friend gave emphasis to the lesson "do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself". 

Time passed and when my kids were adolescents, I looked for a parrot to satisfy the need for a pet. Another small green parrot of the same kind became part of our family, a friend of all. I felt it had a special connection with me; it reminded me my first friend, the same kind, color, mood. I used to whistle when I walked back home, and this little friend heard me and used its sharp voice to announce my presence. In sunny days, my family enjoyed watching it having a bath under the sun.... 

Many years passed till one afternoon, when I had just come back from work, I was told that our little friend was feeling ill. I gently put it on one hand, it opened the eyes, moved its head and passed away.... My little friend, Polo, had waited to say goodbye.

The love you feel for your pets is greatly corresponded by them, and sometimes they are better friends than you are. These videos are a great demonstration of love for the other. 

Hippo trying to help impala

Remember to take care of your pets!

Now is your turn:

Tell me about you favourite pet(s)
What its(their) name is(are)
Since when you have it(them)
Why you love your pet(s)

Upload a photograph if possible
Minimun length: 160 words

The story of my favourite photograph

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still" 

Dorothea Lange, American documentary photographer

I have warm memories of public squares, urban parks and other areas of recreation where people gathered to listen to a band of musicians, children played tag, serious men read newspapers, young people met and flirted, dogs ran after running kids holding colorful ballons, ...  

"Magician"

As a child, I looked with admiration at the smiling man who worked miracles using a "magical" device that called the attention of the people around; I was intrigued to know how this apparently ordinary man was able to take images of kids, couples in love, tourists, families. This "magician" used a big camera on a tripod and, after a short ceremony to arrange people in the "adequate" position, he pressed a mysterious button while a big flash emitted light on the subjects, causing surprise in the spectators. Then, he introduced his hand into the camera cloth hood, moved his hand within the camera and extracted the precious material: a black-and-white image on paper. 

Technological advance has led those photographers to almost extinction... photographic cameras have become smaller, cheaper and within the reach of everyone... But the transition to modern digital cameras was not easy at all...   

Non-professional, economic old cameras needed an external flash that was inserted into the camera: this "magic cube" had four bulbs that permitted to have light for four photographs; thus, if you were in an important ceremony, you needed 9 magic flashes to have light for 36 photographs... and you also needed to buy a roll film for 36 photographs and insert it in the camera. Later, the roll films had to be taken to places where the photographs would be developed.  

SRL camera (TTL=Through The Lens)

In time, Single-Reflex Lens (SRL) cameras became cheaper... this led me to reading on photography and, as young adult, I learned, in a workshop, how to take and develop photographs in a laboratory. In short, you first removed the roll film from the camera in a dark room and treated it with chemicals; then, you let a beam of light pass through each frame of the photographic film for a few seconds: the light would leave an "invisible" image on a sensitive photographic paper; then, you placed this paper into a developer fluid until an image--the photograph--were visible to your eyes; next, you removed the photograph from the fluid and immersed it into another fluid to fix the image on paper; finally, you removed the photograph, washed it  and allowed it to dry... the magic was there: a beautiful photograph of your own.

My curious friend...

Many years ago, I was trying to capture a still life early in the morning, when a wandering dog came to me, with a curious look, trying to understand the magic of the camera I held in my hands...I took some pictures while it stared at me... waiting for the magic to come, but magic did not come; I felt its disappointment when it turned and went away.  I never saw it again; however, it is present in my album of photos where the magic of its look prevails...

Nowadays, digital cameras allow to have hundreds of photographs, have automatic built-in flash , no paper nor roll film is required; yet, some people say they are in danger of disappearing with the appearance of smartphones and other devices of common use. 

While technology advances, I can imagine the wandering dog saying "it's my image in your mind that matters... the rest is just technology..."   

Now it´s your turn:

Write about a photograph you like and say

Who took it

What it shows

When it was taken

Why you like it

Upload it too

Include any other information you'd like to mention.

Minimum number of words: 150

My favourite book OR film

"Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, 

but taste completely different." - Stephen King

Books are a pleasure that good readers enjoy. They lead you through mysteries, such as Agatha Christie's detective stories or Dan Brown's plots, to scientific, philosophical, historical, romantic issues in an endless number of genres written both in formal and informal language, fiction and non-fiction. 

When I was about ten, my father gave me a book to read it carefully, as it contained "messages that I would cherish all my life long". He was not fond of reading, but that book had meant a lot to him and wanted to transfer his feelings to me.

I enjoyed reading it! The book written by Edmondo de Amicis, “Cuore”, the Italian term for "Heart", tells us about  Enrico—the main character—who is a nine-year-old boy, who writes about his life at school, his friends and not so much friends, their families, his teachers ... The novel covers one year of Enrico´s life at school narrated in the form of a diary; each classmate´s life develops and grows in your mind and you end up by feeling love and understanding for them. As Enrico’s classmates, you also waited eagerly for reading the story of the month; these remarkable “monthly stories” were short stories full of sensitivity, braveness, endurance, warmth and genuine love—one of such stories was “From the Apennines to the Andes”….

As a teenager, I developed a liking for watching films in those attractive buildings with a superb architecture, similar to opera houses, where you could enjoy watching both the surroundings and the films and everyone would be quiet and respectful... no popcorn existed… Technicolor and Cinerama brought elegance and modernity, and super-productions became common. Ben-Hur, The Sound of Music, Star Wars and E.T The extraterrestrial were invested with the stateliness of the theatres.

Elegance of  the Grand Rex movie theater in Paris

Although technological advances have made possible to give life on screen to Tolkien's fantastic world, The Lord of the Rings; and Crichton's Jurassic Park;  I'd have liked to have watched them in the magnificent buildings of the past century without the sound of popcorn around me.

I enjoy watching films, so naming my favourite one is hard to anyone, especially me. Big Fish, As Good as it gets, The lord of the rings, Sense and Sensibility, Skyfall, La la Land, Rainman, The Cyder House Rules, Faceoff, Dead Poet's Society ... are just a few of films that come to my mind...

Yet, there is a film that I think everyone should watch to live and learn. We often hear that books are far better than films. A long time ago a watched a film named "The Shawshank Redemption", a beautiful story of a man accused of murdering his wife and how he faced his life in prison; it has an extraordinary ending. Great casting, well-structured film.

I looked for the book and I realized that it was a rather short  (about 50 pages long) story written by Stephen King. The author and the director of the film worked together; the film was nominated to several Oscar awards, but won none. To the critics' surprise, the video was a complete success and today is considered a real masterpiece...! And I must say that the film was to me better than the novel; the music, the location, the casting and the direction contributed to the enrichment of a solid story.

Now, it is your turn

Tell me what your favourite film OR book is
What makes it attractive
When  you read/watched it
Why you recommend it
Minumum length : 150 words.
Remember to make comments on 3 of your classmates' posts and also the teacher's