terrorism

Terrorism is a global problem. There are many ways of terrorism, one of the most recent is the informatic one, on the internet. But by now, the most common is the aggressive one, the one that causes death, terror and pain. If you read the word carefully it won't be difficult for you to understand where it comes from: the act of causing terror among people... Now think, is it a good way of trying to change things?

Of course it is not! They can't see that the only thing that terrorism gets is hate, fear and chaos.

In my opinion terrorism is the worst way of manipulation. Some organizations may even rule like a lobby, but there's no point on achieveing power by the force. We live in a democracy, and although we still have a long walk before we reach an equal society based on respect, honesty and truth, we must try to keep it improving. Terrorism is nothing but a stone on the road to freedom and we must wash it away.

How? You may ask. It's not going to be easy. I haven't said it is something we can fight within a few days. Even though, we must stand against it and try to erradicate it: together we can do anything. Together... And with some help of our governments, who must ignore any pressure they might recieve from terrorists, and also be truthful to us (but that's another issue to deal with...).

sleep for memory

Scientists in China and the US have recently discovered the connection between the quantity of sleep and the way neurons do their job. As it seems, the better and more we sleep, the better our brain works. This improvement of our sleep improves at the same time our memory. Scientists have proved with their experiment that subjects having more sleep were more likely to learn more and fatser than those sleeping less. They explain this phenomenon proving that when we sleep our brain reviews everything that we have done during the day, including that what we have studied.

I think it is fascinating to see how science can explain some incredible things such as this curious fact. Some rimes I've read in articles and books that the loss of sleep and, basically to stop sleeping, can boost our mental capacity and our brain habilites. This investigation, however, shows that it is actually the approrpiate amount of sleep what improves our mind.

More info at:  http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27695144

maleficent

Maleficent is the re-edition of the traditional Disney film Sleeping beauty. It tells the story from a different point of view, from the sight of Maleficent. At the beggining, you see a young fairy living in a magic forest. When she meets a human boy, who's come from the humanlands looking for some gemes to sell, she rapidly falls in love with him. After some years of friendship, when they are sixteen the boy kisses her promising eternal love... But this love disappears as he grows up and becomes more and more mean and ambitious. This ambition leads him to do something terrible: he betrays Maleficent when the king, in his deathbed, offers the crown to whom kills her. When he fouls her and cuts her wings, she becomes dark and dangerous and some years after that, during the new king's daughter's baptism, she appears and curses the baby. Then, the baby is sent to a cottage to be raised by three fairies who are not very able to grow up a human. Maleficent looks patienly and closely to Aurora, until something extraordinary happens...

I've really liked this film. This version of the classic offers a different point of view and represents a huge contrast with the traditional version of the sleeping beauty. Publics of all ages will enjoy this film: the little ones because of its amusing part, and the older ones because of its critical part, as well as the memory from their childhood.

welcome summer!

Welcome summer!!

Wow... It's been such a long wait for summer to come, but finally it is here. The weather is at last warm, I've finished my exams and school is about to come to an end. 

This weekend has been crazy, crazy enough to greet summer. On Friday afternoon I went to the swimming pool, as usual, but after that I went with my family to our favourite restaurant in Empuriabrava. Then, on Saturday, I woke up early to finish some stuff from school and, at eleven I met with Francesc (my new sailing partner) to train. We sailed about two hours and when we finished I rushed to Torroella de Montgrí, where I had an appointment with Vicenç Pagès (a catalan writer) for my TDR. After two hours of interview, I wandered around the streets enjoying a festival about magic they were having. Afterwards, we went to Palamós to visit my grandparents. We went shopping and then we slept in our flat by the sea.

On Sunday I woke up early in Plalamós and quickly got on the car way to st.Pere. On the road we stopped again in Torroella to have a magnific breakfast of croisants and orange juice and then we continued our return. At about eleven I arrived in st.Pere, where Carles (my coach) was waiting for me to train again with Francesc. We've sailed almost four hours and in the afternoon I've been in La Gola just enjoying the sun, the wind and basicly...  Summer!

spain's king abdicates

Today, at short past ten, Mariano Rajoy, the president of Spain, appeard on an official communicate telling Spain that the king Juan Carlos the 1st had decided to abdicate and pass the crown to Felipe, his heir.

The news surprised Spain and the spanish whilst everyone was working on their jobs. By midday the breaking new had already spreaded around the country and the world. At that time, Juan Carlos have made another communicate, then talking himself about the reasons of his decision and encouraging the spanish to trust in Felipe. According to his speech, it seems that he considers he's ruled the country for long enough and it is time for his son to sit on the throne. He's also spoken about his health and the difficult moment Spain is living (the deep crisis it is suffering).

The new have instantly become trending topic on twitter and lots of politicians, economists but also citzens have given their opinion and point of view about it. It is good to remember that Juan Carlos is the third king to abdicate within a year in Europe (the Belgian and the Dutch abdicated last year). The politic tensions Spain's living with the Catalan process have become more sensible around the country, where a lot of citzens (not only catalans and euskeras) have expressed their wish to transform Spain into a republic.

As I see it, a King was very useful some time ago (...perhaps the last century?) but now, that democracy has reached its maturity, a crown has nothing to do in a country but spending its money... 

finishing 1bat

Almost nine months have passed since I started first of Batxillerat. In September, nine months looked like eternity, now, they're just dust. How have all this time flied so fast? I think I have the answer: a lot of stress and fun.

-Stress... In some ways it's been a stressful year. First, we have all the stuff to do from school plus the exams and projects. Then we have the non-stop sailing season. Between school and sailing, weeks and weekends have passed so fast that I haven't even realized. Even though, I like this lifestyle and I definetely prefere it to the boring Sunday's evenings lying on the coach waiting for a good film that never arrives...

-Fun. Despite being very buzy, I have had some time to have fun. And what's more, I have fun doing the things I do, overall, sailing. Appart from sailing, I have also enjoyed other activities, such as swimming, windsurfing... To get it better, I've been to parties, concerts, I've gone to more than a trip, I've been with my familly, etc. 

In conclusion, course 2013-14 has been very profitable: I've learnt a lot, I've enjoyed almost every second and, in fact, it's gone sooooo fast (but that's ok!).

Here you have some pictures of this year!

time flies...

Time flies. That's a fact.

How can we prove that fact? Very symple, show something that used to be modern a few years ago to a today's kid and stare at his reaction! That's what "the fine brothers" have tried with the eighties' computers.

Don't miss this funny video. First you can see they don't even know what's standing in front of them. When they reach the conclusion that that's a computer, they wonder how to turn it on, and once on... They know anything about how to use it! (Honestly, I wouldn't know neither) the first thing they look for on it is obviously internet. Mistake! There was no internet back to that time:) after that, they play with it a few minutes and quickly get bored of it.

It is an interesting experiment, and I have to say that there were two sentences that stuck to my mind. Thi first one, has a sense of humour: it looks so hipster! The other one, worried me a little: if there was no internet, how did they do their school work? This means that young generations are completely forgetting about books... Do we really want to be a society based exclusively on internet?

Internet is an undoubtable helpful tool, however, we can't rely only on internet. We must keep books and handwritten things as a treasure if we don't want our grandsons to need a keybord to write down anything.

longboarding

Last year a longboard in a shop caught my eye. Since then I asked for it for several months until one day my parents told me: "if you want a longboard, you'll have to build it yourself. We're not buying it because you'll use it twice and then forget it in the garage..." But I really wanted the "long", rather than as a toy, as a transport. So I built one.

At first I didn't really know how to start, so I looked on the internet about shapes, materials, wheels, styles... Everything. I found which woods and shapes were the best and then I took what I could from home: my high quality wood was nothing more than an abandoned wooden centerboard, and the shape... Well, I drew it with a projector on the wall.

Luckily a friend of mine was there to help me, so we did it together. I drew the desing for the bottom and the shape, he cut it and together we sanded and painted it. After that, we went to Figueres and bought the axles and the wheels. When we thought we were almost finished, we couldn't find males nor females to fix them. We looked for them in several ironmongers and finally found some that were suitable.

It took us about a week working the whole day to build the longboard, but it was really worth it. Perhaps it is not the best, and it does have some imperfections, but I'm really happy with it and I have to say that we are very proud of our handmade longboard.

green roof

Barklays center in Brooklin is set to go green with a giant roof garden. It is planned to build several housing flats around the arena. In order to muffle the sound and to make the place more attractive, the existing roof (which is based on an iron cielling with Barklays' logo) will be replaced by a colosal garden. The garden will be built on floatating trays above the existing roof so that the plants will grow covering the old one. An air gap will reduce the sound and make the plants more likely to survive.

In my opinion a green roof will be beneficial for the zone, it will look better and even reduce pollution by making more breathable air. I'm eager to see the result and, of course, I'd like to go there to see it... And to assist to a concert, as well as visiting the city!

swim, swam, swum

I started swimming at the age of three and I went to classes until I was seven. Since then, I've always swum quite well, but just for fun.

This Autumn I decided to join a course again, to gain strength and (obviously) be a better swimmer. We started going on Fridays, but the thing is that now the coach has decided to form a club and the training days have increased to three per week. it may seem very tiring, in fact it is, but I really enjoy it! It is a kind of tiredness that is rewarding, that makes you feel great. 

On Tuesday we were learning butterfly stye, it is tough: I swallowed liters of water! However, I liked it.

By the moment I'm able to combine this with school, one hour of English, one and a half hour of German and sailing, but some days, if I have a lo of homework or I'm with exams, I must miss the class.

london

What a wonderful city!

I had never been to London until this four-day-trip with school, and this city has amazed me so much. I even think I'm in love with it;)

We were staying in a hostel in Elephant and Castel which was very comfortable, that quarter of the city is very interesting and full of people from all around the world. Even though it wasn't a specially beautiful zone, we were near from everywhere and had a lot bus stops and underground stations around, so we were very well-communicated.

The center is fantastic, all the sights, buildings, shops, streets, museums, bridges... It is all very beautiful. We've been to almost all the highlights of the city but also to some places not that famous but worth seeing, such as Covent garden or Candemn town.

London, I'll be back!