I'M A LITTLE GREEN

In the last two or three years, I’ve incorporated some green practices into my habits. The first step, was buying a bycicle with some savings I had in those times. I started visiting my friends and some places quite close to my home, but unfortunately, I couldn’t use my bike to go to the university… it was not because the university is far from home, it was because the road is dangerous; motorists, taxi and bus drivers usually don’t respect bike riders, and Santiago doesn’t have enough cycling paths either. Besides, there’s too many people who uses the cycling paths for jogging or walking… So I use public transportation daily, and in some special occasions I use my car, though I try not to do it.
Another green practice I’ve incorporated into my life and into my family practices, is making “eco-bricks”; it consists in taking empty (and dry) plastic bottles and fill them with inorganic waste. Eco-bricks are a construction materials, and also they can be thermal and acoustic insulators… and they’re very easy to make! There are some “green points” in Santiago where you can take your eco-bricks: my favorite is the one at Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM), right in the heart of downtown.

To finish, I’d ike to add that I’ve been a Greenpeace member for one year; basically, it consists in making a monthly money contribution, at the same time that Greenpeace informs me –and all their members- all the things they’re working at. I would like to take a more active participation, but I really don’t have enought time, at least for now.

Here I attach some pictures related to this post :)

A tree in the middle of the cycling path

A small construction made with eco-bricks.

I LOVE MUSIC

Music is very important in my life, I think I just couldn’t live without it. It makes me feel alive and I think it’s amazing the way that music can take you to different moments of your life.
I like many kinds of music: classical, dance, electronic, folk, pop, indian, gypsy, etc., but I think my favorite one is psychedelic rock. Some of my favorite bands are from the 60’s or 70’s: The Beatles, The Doors and The 13th Floor Elevators. But in the last months I’ve discovered some modern bands which sound very similar as Tame Impala, Chicos de Nazca and Protistas (the last two are Chileans!). I like this music because it makes me feel happy, and when I put it on my headphones it transports me, no matter where I am. In spite of I like many kinds of music, there are just two music genres that I don’t like: reggaeton and heavy metal… I just can’t put up with it.
Despite of I love music, I’ve never learned to play any instrument… I tried a few times, but I’m very impatient so I gave up quickly… but I can sing pretty well, and when I was in school I participated in the scholar chorus for three consecutive years… up until today I like singing, though I prefer doing it when I’m alone because it embarrasses me a little.

To finish I’d like to say that, just like me, I think people couldn’t live without music, or maybe they could but they would never be happy. Music can make you feel many different emotions, change your mood, bring you back memories… it’s a piece of our history.

Here's one of my favourite songs, I hope you like it :)

Protistas - Nortinas War from Sello Cazador on Vimeo.

BIRD BRAIN

At this time, I'm going to write a small review about an article from The Guardian, an online newspaper from the UK. I've chosen an article about a recent research which has found that crows use complex reasoning and tools to obtain food.

It really surprised me because, as the new's writer says, having a bird brain usually means to be an idiot, so this research demonstrates the opposite. So, from this perspective, that belief hasn't any foundation and probably it comes from:

1) the behavior of domestic birds that have lived in small cages for hundreds of generations, and

2) the physical structure of bird's brains.

As we know, bird's brain look different than primate and more evolved animals brains. But now, researchers are actually observing wild, never domesticated birds, and they've found this small animals use their brains in a different way to achieve the same goals than humans do. These discoveries are consistent with structural differences.

The following video shows a crow using tools to acomplish a specific goal, something that great apes can´t do:

So, now I’m going to feel flattered everytime someone tells me I have a bird brain haha... It won't be an insult for me anymore.

Complete article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/jan/04/1?INTCMP=SRCH

EUTHANASIA

I must confess, when I hear the word EUTHANASIA, it makes me shiver… I totally agree with government and medical’s policies which look for life’s preservation, in cases of suicide most of all. Mainly because when people gets better, they’re very thankful by the help and treatment received.

But it’s different when we’re talking about people suffering great pain, whose can’t do anything to feel better, not even take care of themselves. They are destined to depend on someone else, which in most of cases implies an emotional and physical debilitation both for who suffers the illness as for the carer. I think we all deserve to live and die with dignity, so if we currently can decide about someone else’s life, like giving our children up on adoption or not, why we can’t decide about our own life? I wouldn’t like to see my family in pain because I have a degenerative disease with no posibilities of recovery… we would all know how it’s going to end up, so it doens’t have any sense to extend the suffering. If physicians must respect their patients wishes like rejecting some treatments or DNR (do not resucitate) orders, they should also respect their wish to die.

The only case of euthanasia I’ve known is the story of Ramón Sampedro, which is related in the film Mar Adentro. Watching this movie made me think about the sense of preserving life at all costs… I totally recommend to watch this film, and then to ask yourself: does it really worth?

A country I'd like to visit

One of the countries I'd love to visit is Germany, specifically Berlín. I have to say this preference has been influenced by many friends that have been to Europe to finish their higher education. A lot of them have told me that Berlín is the most beautiful and cool city they've ever visited, and also, I have seen many pictures of its parks, museums, buildings... it's just awesome, there's so many interesting places to visit! One of the places I’d like to visit in Berlín is the Holocaust memorial… as it’s name says, it was created to the jewish victims of the holocaust and it was designed by a german and very well-known architect called Peter Eisenman. This memorial consists in around two thousand concrete blocks perfectly aligned, on a very extensive surface area in the middle of the city. I think being at this place must be very intense… the concrete blocks must create a very cold and gloomy atmosphere.

Another place i’d like to visit, obviously, is the Berlín wall. At this point I’d like to clarify that I’m not sure if I’d like to live, study or work in Berlín, mainly because of the language… I don’t speak a word of german. But I’d love to visit this city because it has a lot of history, and its architecture seems just amazing to me.

The Cinema

I really love watching movies at the cinema, because I easily use to get distracted, so being at the cinema forces me to put all my attention on what I’m watching. Although this small attention defect, I’ve seen more movies at home than at the cinema lately, almost all of them downloaded from internet. But this is just because it would be very expensive to go to the cinema everytime I want to watch a movie, and also, not all the films I want to see are available at the cinema.
I couldn’t say I have one favourite kind of film, even I can say that I don’t like typical love movies. I like comedies and thrillers, and my favourite films are those with an unexpected ending.
Malta con huevo is one of my favourite chilean films; it’s a black pop comedy, really bizarre, starring by Nicolás Saavedra and Diego Muñoz. In short it tells the story about a lazy guy, Vladimir, who’s living with a friend, Jorge, and his girlfriend. As the film goes on, Vladimir starts travelling through the time, so everything gets very distorted. I totally recommend this film, it really makes you go crazy and the end is just AWESOME!
If someone made a film about my life, I think it would be a little distorted, like Malta con huevo… even I hope the end is not that bloody, haha.

A new and strange term

I have to admit, in the beggining, I really didn´t like the idea of a summer term. When I knew I had to start a new term halfway through november I almost wanted to die. After the first impact, I started to pay attention to some positive aspects, so I felt a lot better.
I took six subjects, including the english class. My favourites up to now are Freudian Psychoanalysis and Educational Inclusion, and I could even say there is no subject that i really dispise. So I hope to approve all of them and also to release from the final exams, so I can go away on vacations free of any worry.
Because of the short duration of this term, I think I won’t make anything special for christmas eve, besides the typical family celebration. I want to concentrate all my energies on giving the best of me, and get free as soon as I can.