Some questions for next year

1.  Can you see an improvement on your level of English in the past year/s?  Where, for example?

Yes. Because 2 years ago, i dind't feel confident when it comes to speak to someone in english, and my grammar got better to.

2. Which activity best shows your level of English?

Listening.

3. Which activities were really USEFUL for you to improve your English? Why?

Skills. Because when you do a sort of exam without studying and pass it, you know your real level and not something your going to forget a few days later, and that's when you see improvement.

4. Which activities did you NOT find useful to learn English? Why not?

Each one of the activities made me improve. None of them were useless.

5. Which activities would like to do again next year to keep on improving your English? ( They're in red)

Oral presentations

Listening and evaluating to other presentations

Recording and evaluating your oral presentation

Official Exam preparation

Podcasts

Watching films

Class Songs

Videos

Blog yoursays

Blog news

Composition writing in class

Correcting compositions

Grammar Book exercises

Vocabulary extension dossier

Reading 3 books

Grammar & vocabulary Exams, Skills exams

Oral exams

Extra points activities (...)

6. Open Comments (...More ideas, suggestions for activities, suggestion for new topics...)

Pranks in the hood

Seeing the title, you can get a quick idea of how things go, but it's more than doing "pranks in the hood". Explaining it with little details, a couple of guys go to the most poor cities, or how we call it, "Ghettos" of US and practically, do pranks against mostly black people, waiting to see how's the reaction, like a social experiment. Usually they ask people things using wordsplay like: Do you want to get popped? It has a double meaning. One of them is to get shot and the other one is to have a drink and as soon as the black guys hear it, they run agressvily against the guy and starts knocking the shit out of him. Meanwhile, they do the same with white people and get completly different reactions. I leave this here for you to judge. Black people is more agressive than white people? What do you think?

Dead Lock by Sara Paretsky

The main character of this story is a private investigator, called Vic Warshawsky. Most of the plot follow her in her attempt to reveal who killed her cousin whose nickname is Boom Boom and why. As a professional private investigator, she goes around asking people questions, mainly at the docks or to people who had something to with his hockey team. Knowing that  he died because he slipped at the port and fell under the boat, where the engine killed him, some of the people from the docks will try to prevent her from investigating because this could represent trouble for them.

I'm not used to read books about murders and investigation or something linked to it, but I think the book is good. Not very entertaining because at some moments, the story develops real slowly and some dialogues are unnecessary, but it wasn't bad neither.
The investigation and the way she links the information she has to discover new things, and the fact that these "high charges" men follow her killing witnesses and people who would have useful information make it interesting at some points.
I would recommend it to people who at the top of all, have a medium-high english level because ofthe vocabulary, and after that, people who have patience and like to read suspense and drama.

US PayPal users face marketing robot cold calls

PayPal is changing its terms and conditions to state users must accept automated marketing calls, emails and text messages.

The changes - which come into force in July - will only apply to its US customers.The eBay-owned company told the BBC that it "would honour any customers' requests to decline marketing outreach".But no such opt-out is included in the terms and conditions.Instead customers are invited to either accept or decline.If you do not agree to the amended user agreement, privacy policy or acceptable use policy, you may close your account before July 1, 2015 and you will not be bound by the amended terms the document states.

The US's Federal Communications Commission is working to crack down on robocalls and spam email.It plans to legalise technology that blocks such calls and wants telephone companies to offer the tools to their customers.

First Steam Machines on sale

The first Steam Machines - an attempt to bring PC gaming to a wider audience - are available to pre-order.

PC makers Alienware and Cyberpower have both announced machines that will be sent out to buyers in October.Several Steam Machines will be out this year, an attempt by games publisher Valve to compete with consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation.Many analysts are not convinced it poses a threat to those well-established brands.Steam is a hugely popular gaming platform and shop for the PC market. In September 2013, owner Valve announced it was to work with manufacturers to develop Steam Machines in the hope it would encourage PC gaming in the living room.The controller has been designed as an alternative to the typical PC gaming set-up of keyboard and mouse.Both machines can be souped-up to offer more hardware power.

Never used steam though, but I heard a lot of friends talk good stuff about it. I would use it if I had a better computer, unfortunately, i'll stick with the consoles. About the steam machines, I think sony and microsoft should really wake up, or they'll have a really competitive opponent.

Several: Muchas

Attempts: Intentos

Warming

US researchers say new evidence casts doubt on the idea that global warming has "slowed" in recent years.

A US government laboratory says the much talked about "pause" is an illusion caused by inaccurate data.Updated observations show temperatures did not plateau, say National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) scientists.The warming rate over the past 15 years is "virtually identical" to the last century, they report in Science.Dr Thomas Karl of NOAA, who led the new analysis, said: "We would hope that it would inform the general public that the temperature today really is continuing to warm."

Various explanations have been put forward, including changes in volcanic and solar activity, and ocean currents.

The new analysis corrects for ocean observations made using different methods as well as including new data on surface temperatures.

I got to recognize they've been a long time warning us about the climate change, but most part of the population did nothing to prevent it, including me. Now we got to deal with the consequences, and one of these are the continue warming of the planet.

Inaccurate: Inexacto

Currents: Corrientes

Get rich or die tryin'

Rappers got a whole lot of thigs to say about their life, normally how much they struggled until they arrived at the top. This movie stars 50cent, whose name in the movie is Marcus. He lives in NY and as a big part of the black population there, he is usually involved in a constant drug dealing environment, because even his own mother sells crack and he knows it, but the only purpose for her to do so is to raise her little boy like the way it's supposed to be. Unfortunately at the age of 8, his mother, Katrina gets killed ( burned alive) by a close friend, Majestic, because she's bringing a lot of trouble for his gang about selling stuff at others territories.

After that, Marcus gets to live at his grandparents house and secretly, he keeps up with his mother's business on the streets. He starts to get expensive clothes, a new car, a gun, and buy a house on his own, until he gets arrested for a couple of months because of selling dope. During these months, he starts to work with his lyrics at the jail, to become a new rap star the day he gets out, and after that, he'll try to deal with some important enemies, including his mom's murderer.

As all of those biographical movies about my favourite artists, I really liked it. I really like to watch these kind of movies that talk about how people overcome in their lifes. The original soundtrack is priceless, with one of my favourites tracks by him, Window Shopper the technical material in the movie is decent.

I just think that the movie got a bit longer than it should've been and the end wasn't what I was expecting, but it's ok.

Essay/ Chaos in an inmature mind

More than a month ago, 4/20/15 to be more exact, in a Barcelona highschool. a thirteen-year-old boy shot 2 teachers with a crossbow and used a knife against some classmates. Highschool was evacuated. A teacher died and there were 4 wounded.

In my point of view, safety is something which lacks in some highschools in the world. A boy wouldn't be able to walk inside those buildings with a crossbow, a molotov and a knife if they had enough security. But security is not the key for everything. We could rely on the education that has been given to this boy at home or at school.

There's something that disgusts me a lot about this story, and it's the fact that he's not going to be judged because of his age.
Our laws are just going to let him go after killing an innocent person. I think that, at the age of thirteen. you're already mature enough to know the consequences of doing so. I really hope that after this mess, they have something in mind to solve this issue or maybe it's the parents fault. Who knows. But I still think he should be punished in a severe way.

Podcast

Anyday, when I have the opportunity to go abroad, I would like to travel to Los Angeles. As you can see, I posted a picture of the Hollywood walk of fame because it's the first place I'm going to visit when I arrive in LA. In this picture we can see that there's a lot of traffic in the avenue. I guess that people are going home after job because sun's almost gone. As always, there's a couple of tourists taking photos of the celebrities names in the sidewalk. Lots of lights and stores because there's a lot of moviment in this part of the town. There's a couple of ads at the buildings in the front and far from the photo place, we can see some  high rise buildings.

Poetry

Sweet poetry. Since I was introduced to rap, I started to feel an interest about poetry. The idea of talking about your feelings, with strophes, verses, rhymes and beautiful words just amaze me, and it's even better if it is in english ( at least for me). Poetry requires control above the language, and an imagination with no limits. There's so much freedom to talk about whatever you want and feel confortable linking one word to another.

One day I hope to control all the elements, forms and genres of the poetry and start doing some real texts and professional poems and then, compare them to the ones I've made during my adolescence, just to see the lyrical change.

Homosexuality

Homosexuality...I don't know where should I start. Sharing your point of view about these "unstable" topics are like screaming: People, insult me because I hate/ I have nothing against them.

But yeah, I hate them. Since I was a kid, I was educated with a strong religion influence, and even though I'm not Thaaaat religious, I think homosexuality is wrong. There are two kind of genders, male and female. You beggin as one of these two, and you'll end up with someone of the opposite gender, so, why people try to change it?

It's gross, and see how people defend it's even worst. All they say is: If they love each other, why not? Yeah, WHY NOT? Talking about this make me sick, I just don't like it, that's it.

Social Networks

So this is one of the millions of tools that people make bad use of it.

I'm one of those who just use them to talk to others and that's it( this blog is obligatory, if not I wouldn't even been doing it).

When I see people uploading photos everyday, uploading quotes every hour, connected every time of day...Only if I could make them think about the interesting things the could been doing instead of sitting tight there looking to a screen chatting. These today's generations...Damn, what have we done to end up like this? It's like some sort of addiction to some, and it really bugs me out.

Exams

Exams are a way to qualify students through their educational period, apart from behaviour and homework.

Usually the most important way. Well, and if I tell you that the educational system is broken?

Your intelligence can't be measured by an exam's mark. Even dumb people could study to apply these things they "learnt" to put it in an exam to get a good mark and that's it. Cutting to the chase, the message I want to tell you, who's reading this is: don't feel bad for failing an exam. Not going to lie, they decide your future, but don't prove how smart you are. Don't study things to have a comfortable life, study them because you like it and it's interesting.

single-parent families

For some kind of reason, since I arrived in Europe, I noticed that a lot of friends of mine live with a single-parent family.

It's a shame to see that after having a kid, some couples break, mainly because of cheating, or drinking problems, matterfact, some of them are better being separated one from the other.

Another fact that I saw a lot, is that most of the kids live with their moms, or normally spends weekends with the father and the rest with their mother, but never stick only with their father.

Some kids never accept the fact of seeing their parents living separatly, and usually grow with a strange conduct.

The worst thing come when you get a step mother/ father and you don't like him. Yeah, that happens a lot.

But think about it. If the only parental member in your family for you is your dad or your mom, don't complain, just thank him/ her for making these 2 roles in your life.

8 Mile

8Mile was released in 2002. It's a really interesting movie starring Eminem. He interprets a guy whose nickname is "B-rabbit" who used to live with his girlfriend but when they got split, he had to go back to his mom's trailer house. Since that, his life has been a living hell. His mom hangs out with a guy who's a douchbag, beats her, etc... Economical problems.... He gets a job in a factory to earn some money so he can move to a new house. Even though people criticize him for being white and not belonging to rap, Rabbit  frequents a place called "The shelter" where mostly coloured people go to perform Rap battles to get respect in the ghetto of Detroit . Rabbit's goal is to win the shelter's champion, "Papa Doc" who pertains to a gang called "The free world" which wants to get him out of the rap game without killing him.

The movie itself is pretty good. I really enjoyed it because some points of the movie are related to Eminem's real life back in the day. Little mentions about Rakim, Notorious, 2pac and other big rappers were cool too. There's a really nice plot twist were Rabbit's mom gets a paper in the mail, which is an eviction order because she didn't pay the rent and they almost had nothing to eat, but a couple of days later, she wins at the bingo and earns 3200$.

I'm not a good movie reviwer but I think every technical material about the movie it's ok. The dialog, the camera positioning, etc...The only thing that got me a bit disappointed was the fact that they didn't improvised their bars in their rap battles, and I think rappers like Proof, Eminem or Xzibit, could've done it in the movie, instead of memorizing it from the script.

STAN

As my second "yoursay" about music, I'm going to talk about STAN.

Stan is a HipHop song made by Eminem, and it has two versions. One of them is featuring a british singer called Dido and the other one is with Elton John. It was released in the 99's, and even though it is old, the first time I heard it, I thought it was from the late 2000's.

 It is a really sad song.

STAN stands for stalker and fan. Why? Well, back in the day and still happens, some eminem fans take him to the extrem and EM tried to send a message to his fans: He was trying to say that he's just a normal person who produces music to people who like rap and hiphop, not much else.

Behind these words, the videoclip shows a guy called stan, who complains about his life, lives in a trailer and treats his girlfriend like trash, even knowing she's pregnant. The song has 4 verses, all of them are made by Eminem, but at the three first ones, he's interpreting Stan, writing mails to eminem and getting mad because he doesn't answer him. At the end of the third verse, he throws his car to drown himself in a river with his girlfriend in the trunk because Eminem didn't answer him.

At the fourth verse, Eminem's answering him while listening to the news. After writing a couple of lines he sees in the TV that a guy called STAN drowned himself in the river with his girlfriend and left a tape in the car, which said it was Eminem's fault.

Elton John's Chorus:

My tea's gone cold and I'm wondering why I...

Got out of  bed at all

The morning rain clouds up my window...

And I can't see at all

And even if I could it'll all be gray, but your picture on my wall...

It reminds me, that it's not so bad

Not so bad...

Some cool translated quotes from the song:

See, I'm just like you in a way...I never knew my father neither, he always used to cheat on my mom and beat her.

Ves, de un modo soy como tu...Nunca conocí a mi padre tampoco,él siempre solia engañar a mi madre y pegarla.
But I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her up, see? I ain't like you. Cause if she suffocates, then she'll suffer more and she'll die too...
Pero no le corté la garganta, solo la até, ves? No soy como tu. Porque si ella se ahoga, sufrirá más y de todas formas morirá...

I really think you and your girlfriend need each other, or maybe you just need to treat her better...

De verdad creo que tu y tu novia os necesitais el uno al otro, o tal vez solo has de tratarla mejor...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY

Weasel photographed riding on a woodpecker's back

Martin Le-May caught the moment when the woodpecker took flight with a weasel on its back

Amateur photographer Martin Le-May, from Essex, has recorded the extraordinary image of a weasel riding on the back of a green woodpecker as it flies through the air.

The photograph was taken at Hornchurch Country Park in east London on Monday afternoon.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Le-May said he had managed to capture the moment while he was out walking with his wife Ann.

He said: "I heard a distressed squawking noise and feared the worst.

"I soon realised it was a woodpecker with some kind of small mammal on its back.

"I think we may have distracted the weasel as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass."

Mr Le-May said he was astounded by the reaction to the picture on social media.

The wildlife shot has been retweeted several thousand times.

Martin Le-May: "It's almost a dream that you take a photograph that lots and lots of people not only look at but like"

He said; "I'm so proud so many people are getting to see my image. I'm totally taken aback by the response to it."

Wildlife expert Lucy Cooke told the BBC News Channel: "This is a truly extraordinary image.

"The green woodpecker is a ground-feeding bird, but weasels normally attack rabbits. The woodpecker is not its usual prey.

"But weasels are fearless.

"A female weasel weighs less than a Mars Bar but is as ferocious as a lion, so this is why the woodpecker would have been able to take off with it on its back."

Personal Opinion: It's all about capturing moments. Sounds easy, but it ain't. Be on the right place, at the right time with your camera, and take a photo of a lazy weasel taking a ride in the back of a woodpecker...Now it sounds hard huh? Think about how much time he has been searching for this moment and you'll see that he really likes his job.
Vocabulary:
Distressed: Angustiado
Wildlife: Fauna

Japan's WW2 'Musashi battleship wreck found'

The Musashi came under sustained attack by waves of US aircraft in October 1944

American billionaire Paul Allen has announced the discovery of the famous World War Two Japanese battleship, the Musashi, more than 70 years after it was sunk by US forces.

Mr Allen said the vessel was found by his private exploration team.

It was at a depth of more than 1km (3,280ft) on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea off the Philippines.

The Musashi and its sister vessel, the Yamato, were two of the largest battleships ever built.

US warplanes sank the Musashi on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, believed to be the biggest naval encounter of World War Two in which American and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.

Mr Allen began his search for the Musashi eight years ago, "because since my youth I have been fascinated with Second World War history," he was quoted by CNBC as saying.

The Musashi was found in the middle of the Philippine archipelago using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. After Mr Allen's team had carried out a thorough survey of the seabed.

Some info about the ship:

Constructed: March 1938

Sunk: October 1944

Length: 862ft

Speed: 27 knots

Crew: 2,399

Aircraft: Seven

Armaments: Nine 18in guns with a range of more than 22 miles

Machinery: Twelve oil-fired burners

Weight: 73,000 tons fully loaded

Personal opinion: Mr Allen is a lucky guy. Just the fact of finding an antique is priceless, but when you notice that you found a Japanese battleship from the WW2, that's when you call yourself a pretty lucky guy, but I think he owns this one to his private team too.
Vocabulary:
Vessel: Buque
Seabed: Fondo del mar

Delhi rapist says victim shouldn't have fought back

In 2012 an Indian student was violently raped on a moving bus in Delhi and died of horrific internal injuries. Leslee Udwin spoke to one of the rapists on death row while spending two years making a film about the case. She came away shocked by India's treatment of women - but inspired by those seeking change.

On 16 December 2012, the 23-year-old woman had been to see a film, the Life of Pi, with a male friend. At 8.30pm they boarded an off-duty bus, with six men on board, five adults and a juvenile. The men beat the friend and each raped the woman in turn, before assaulting her viciously with an iron instrument.

While prosecutors say the men took turns to drive the bus, and all took part in the rape, Singh says he stayed at the wheel throughout.

Along with three of the other attackers, Singh is now appealing against his death sentence. In 16 hours of interviews, Singh showed no remorse and kept expressing bewilderment that such a fuss was being made about this rape, when everyone was at it.

"A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said.

"Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good."

People "had a right to teach them a lesson" he suggested - and he said the woman should have put up with it.

The man:

These offences against women and girls are a part of the story, but the full story starts with a girl not being as welcome as a boy, from birth. When sweets are distributed at the birth of a boy, not of a girl. When the boy child is nourished more than the girl, when a girl's movements are restricted and her freedoms and choices are curtailed, when she is sent as a domestic slave to her husband's home… If a girl is accorded no value, if a girl is worth less than a boy, then it stands to reason there will be men who believe they can do what they like with them.

Personal opinion:

There's really, a lot of guys out there like this one: men who think women are just a sexual object, especially in India, where animals receive a better treatment than women. They should try to think where they came from . Yeah, right, from a woman. So, instead of treating them like that, I think it's time to make them notice how much important they are for us since their birth till the end of their days.

Vocabulary:

Curtailed: Reducidos

Nourished: Nutridos

Roaming: Intinerancia

Do you like blogs?

Personally, I don't. Sometimes, I just think it's a waste of time, and it's a bit boring, or at least when you beggin with it. It's cool to share information, your opinion and other stuff with people you don't know, but I don't like to do it when there's no feedback. Usually I like to discuss things with other people on internet about topics that I like to talk about, but when it comes to do it frequently, I think i'm just wasting my time and if you do it, because a school assignature requires it, it's even worst. Let's see if I change my mind with the pass of time...