the moon :)

The moon 

Maybe it is weird that a 19- year-old guy writes this, but the moon is that companion that even though it doesn’t seem like it, it helps me a lot and it gives me inspiration and it helps me open my mind and get to know things about myself that I didn’t know before, how to take a look at it in moments of high stress and it helps me find serenity, I forget about my problems and my routine and I can submerge in a sea of calmness, in which only my thought exist and my questions that normally are: what am I doing? Am I happy with this life? What can I do to be better? I can last hours observing that white sphere that sticks with me through every dark night: my good friend.

She helps me forget, but she also brings me memories that maybe bring sadness to me, because they were really happy moments that I would like to have a time machine and go back to that moment in which my life was so different, with its bad moments but also with a lot of happiness. I don’t mean that things have changed giving a bad turn, but it just means that my happiness was different. I love to observe it, as well as she observes me and is witness to everything that happens in the dark. I know that she will be with me through anything till the end of my days and that is why I speak to her, even though she doesn’t listen to what I do, because she is my inspiration and tranquility.

I really enjoy writing because it’s my way to express what I am feeling in determined moment or what I am doing and this way I can “immortalize” it, because your mind forgets it a lot of the time but when you write your thought they stay written forever. I recommend you to write often, whatever, whenever, just let your mind lose, even if your ideas seem silly. I look forward to reading your comments, thank you so much.

The Stanford University Experiment

Stanford University Experiment

This experiment also known as Lucifer effect was a psychological study that went through in Stanford University in 1971 in which the plan was to create a prison like ambiance and the conducts that man develops being under these circumstances like the marine corps of the United States. The people that were part of it were chosen with an ad posted up for a job offering a salary of $15 per day for participating in an experiment. Out of 70 persons that applied to the ad, only 24 were chosen, the ones with the best conditions in physical and psychological health. They were all college students.

The group was divided into guards and prisoners, and a rumor started that the students assigned to guards were chosen because they had more physical strength, although they were really chosen by flipping a coin so that there would be no preference.

The prison was built up in the basement of The College of Psychology in the same university. The guards were given military uniforms and shades so they wouldn’t cross eyes with the prisoners, which were just given robes without any underwear and flip-flops and a stocking over their heads in order to create an aspect of inferiority between them and the guards, and the prisoners were called by numbers instead of their names and they also had a chain on their ankles as a reminder of their imprisonment.

One day before starting the experiment, the guards had a meeting in which they were explained all the rules and procedures they had to follow, which were al focused in humiliating the prisoners as well as intimidating them in a way of letting them know that the guards were the ones that were in control of their lives. The prisoners were only told to wait for a visit in their houses. Without any notice, they were arrested by real cops that cooperated in the experiment and they were transferred to the fake prison and this way the first real part of the experiment was done.

The experiment came out of control really fast because the prisoners were so trapped in their character that they accepted the sadistic mistreatment they were given by the guards who didn’t even follow instructions and little by little the prisoners started suffering big emotional traumas only by the second day of the experiment. As the time went by the participants of the experiment forgot that it was only a research experiment and this caused a big problem; the guards separated the good prisoners and bad prisoners making them do denigrating chores like cleaning the bathrooms with bare hands as well as homosexual acts particularly at night when the guards thought the cameras were off.

Two of the prisoners had to leave the experiment because they started showing too big psychological traumas. After 6 days, the experiment had to be canceled because it was getting out of control. It lasted only two days of the scheduled 2 weeks.

This experiment was kind of an impact on me and this is why I decided to share it with you. Hope you liked it. Thanks.

for fans of Metallica: Cliff Burton, a legend of heavy metal

A LEGEND OF HEAVY METAL: CLIFF BURTON

It has been 25 years since one of the best bass players ever left us in a tragic way, the great bass player from Metallica: Cliff Burton. Considered by a lot of people, me included, Cliff was one of the best musicians in heavy metal and trash metal.

What pushed this man was his love for music and his brother’s Scott memory, which died when he was only 13 years old. Cliff was a pianist but when Scott passed away he decided to turn to a bass player in honor of honor of his brother. He wanted to be the best bass player in the world, and he got it. He nearly missed the cut into the band, but if it was not for the idea of going to San Francisco, he would have never been able to play with Metallica. From 1983 to 1986, Cliff became the life of the band and that is why Metallica owes him so much, in fact a lot of what the singer (James) knows about writing and rhythms knows, he knows because of Cliff. They were like brothers. He was the most affected by Cliff’s death, and he became an alcoholic and ended up needing psychological help.

Cliff died at the age of 24, on September 17^th in 1986. The bus, on which he was going back to his hotel while on a tour in Sweden, flipped over. The band’s guitarist (Kirk) tell about how that night he had made a bet on a card game with Cliff that whoever lost would sleep on the back of the bus, and Cliff won with pocket aces. Approximately at 6 a.m. Kirk was awoken by a tire screeching followed by some shaking; it were the back tires drifting in the highway and moments after, the bus flipped over. Everybody was out of the bus shocked by the accident without even knowing Cliff’s body was lying lifeless under the bus.

As it was expected, Cliff marked a lot of this band’s fans and he was a great role model to a lot of today’s musicians.

I hope this little post about this musician was entertaining to you. This great musician showed everybody that no matter our age, if we set a goal we can be the best in whatever we want, if we truly do it with all our heart and our passion. In my opinion, I love music and I spent a lot of time on it because someday I would like to become a great musician and that’s why I chose to write about this person who dedicated his life to music and that being so young he accomplished being world-wide known. Thank you.   

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the most important and abundant compounds in the world, they’re made of Hydrogen and Oxygen and we can find them mostly in vegetables and cereals. The types of carbohydrates are:

A) Complex: we can find these in breads, pasta, cereals, rice, corn, etc. The body slowly uses the energy from complex carbohydrates, that’s why these have a slow absorption.

B) Simples: We need to take care of these carbohydrates because they have an easy absorption, and they can turn us into fatties if we consume them in large quantities. We can find them in sugar, honey, jams, candy, etc.

Sugar, starch, dextrin, cellulose and glycogen are some examples of carbohydrates. And they are classified in:

1. Monosaccharides: these have an aldehyde or a ketone group, the most important is the glucose (or dextrose, this is cellular’s metabolism principal source of energy; in other words, our body takes energy from glucose), and the fructose (this is the sugar that comes from fruits).

2. Disaccharides: these are the union of two monosaccharides, and the most importants are the saccharose (this is the sugar from the cane), lactose (the sugar from the milk, it is formed by glucose and galactose) and maltose (malt sugar. This is elemental in the elaboration of beer, and is also in milk shakes).

3. Polysaccharides: these are large molecules formed by various monosaccharides. 10 molecules in glycogen, 25 in starch and 100 – 200 in cellulose. Glycogen is our body’s fuel, with this, our body accumulates energy (this is why we get fat sometimes). Starch has a high energetic importance, because they provide us the energy that we consume in food. And cellulose is the one who gives the rigidity to vegetables.

And finally I am going to explain to you the functions that the carbohydrates have:

1. Like I’ve been saying, carbohydrates provide us energy. They give us 4 kcal per gram; a little part of it goes to the liver and the muscles as glycogen and the rest becomes fat and it’s accumulated in the adipose tissue. It is recommended to eat at least 100 grams of carbohydrates per day.

2. They also work as protein savers, when you don’t consume the enough amounts of carbohydrates in your diet, the body uses protein to provide the necessary energy.

3. They participate in the regulation of fat metabolism. When we don’t eat the right amount of carbohydrates the body metabolizes fat and they accumulate in our body as ketone bodies, causing problems like “Ketosis”, this give us bad breath, urine with a strong smell, headaches and dizziness because of the lack of glucose.

4. Structural, they form part of the weight and structure of the organism.

In conclusion, carbohydrates are very important to us because they make us more active and healthy, sometimes, most of the people get the wrong idea and think that they’re bad and if they consume them they are going to be fat, and they end up avoiding them. But this is bad because if we don’t consume them we are going to feel down, we can get some diseases, what we need to do is know how much carbohydrates we need to consume everyday because also if we consume them in large quantities, we can get fat, or worse, we can become diabetic. And that’s it, you can go to a nutritionist for more information, or you can ask me… Haha :P

John, remember when you told us that you wanted to know a little bit about carbohydrates and the different types? When you told us thought that it would be a good topic for the blog. So I did a little research and I found this information, I hope that this clears your doubts :)

And I invite you to read a little about the carbohydrate metabolism, it’s a little bit complex, but it is interesting :). Thank you.

My first teaching experience in an elementary school

When I was in second cuatrimester, a teacher prepared us to give a nutrition class in a little school in San Pedro, we were very nervous because we had to deal with like 30 kids and we taught that it was going to be tough.

Our topic was “El plato del buen comer” we explained the groups of food and we told them what the lipids, proteins and carbohydrates are. We told them how to eat well and I was very surprised because everyone was paying attention and all the kids were participating so much.

One thing that I loved and that I will never forget is that no one knew what lipids are and they were like “what is that?” and we told them and obviously it was a new word for them, and after that all the kids were using that word for everything and saying it out loud, that was funny and cute.

Another thing that surprised me so much, is that, we asked the kids if they liked to eat junk food, and most of the kids told us that they didn't liked junk food! They told us that they liked fruits and vegetables, and we were very surprised with that, and also happy because I like to hear that a kid doesn't like junk food :) I don't know if they were saying the truth but I think that it was actually true :)

Then, when I was talking to them, I talked about Cereals and Meats and a little boy in the front was reading all of my paper sheets, but instead of making me feel stressed I was almost laughing because he was saying everything so cute and that was funny. Then I asked them were we can find the meat and a boy told me “in the hot dogs!” and we all laugh, even the teacher was laughing, it was very funny.

We teach them how to clean the vegetables and I loved that everyone was so quiet and listening to us, and learning from us, that made me feel so good :)

In the last moments, we gave everyone a draw of a food, and we draw the “plato del buen comer” in a big paper and we made them pass to the front and stick the food in the correct group :) no one made a mistake and everyone were very excited to pass!

When we had to go I remember that no one wanted us to live the classroom I was almost crying because all of the children were so nice to us and we were so comfortable in there, and they asked “are you going to come back?” and we were like “yes of course!” but we never went again :( haha

I think that this was a nice experience for me and I loved the way that the kids treated us, I thought that no one was going to pay attention, but fortunately I was wrong :) and I also think that this is a good experience to share with all of you, I hope that I could do this again in the future.

Thanks for reading!

And this is a picture of me, my classmates and the kids after the class, we came back and told them if they wanted to took a picture with us and they were screaming and jumping saying that they wanted, and they ran to us to take the picture :) they are so cute! I miss them haha.

Alzheimer disease

It's a form of dementia. There's not cure for this is a cronic disease the leads to death, it was founded by Alois Alzheimer a German Psychiatrist in 1906, for what I have understand you lost your memory and sometimes you forgot your name, or maybe how to breath, and it's really sad that when you are in your golden years some people suffer this disease, and as usual the family leaves alone the person.
  
But there's some good news Mexican scientists are colaborating in a vaccine that may cure alzaheimer and even prevent in a youth age, they're testing on mice that has this disease, and it would be a huge step to the science to find a cure to alzheimer, I hope they find a cure against this disease and alot of lives will save.

My experience on the debate - Diana

Today we had a debate, which the topic was “Abortion should stay illegal in Sonora” and I am going to tell you a little about my experience and how I felt:

Honestly, I was very nervous and stressed, I thought that me and my friends were going to be like “uhh.. I don’t know what to say” because, I don’t like debates very much and I always get very nervous when I talk in front of an audience. I got more nervous when I was talking (I hope that you guys didn’t notice that, but I think that you did). I loved the way that my partners handled the situation I loved how they explained their arguments and everything.

After the arguments, in the questions part, I really really thought that we were going to be quiet, but Erika started to talk and then Addan and then me, and, really, all the comments, all the responses just came out naturally, I feel very happy with that, seriously :)

There were some times that I got stressed because I didn’t know how to express myself and how to say some things, but I think that wasn’t a problem either. Everything went better than expected!



:P



Oh and I also want to say that I always like to hear Mr. Read's feedback, that helps us to improve our performance in class :) thank you, have a nice week!

Avenged Sevenfold

Now I'm going to talk to you about my favorite band of all time: Avenged Sevenfold.

A7X is a metal-core band from Huntington Beach, California, and is formed by M. Shadows (vocals), Synyster Gates (lead guitar), Zacky Vengeance (rhythm guitar, second vocals), Johnny Christ (bass), and they're working these days with Arin Ilejay, because their last drummer (for me, he'll always remain as the only drummer) Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, passed away on December 28th, 2009. They worked with Mike Portnoy too, the bassist of Dream Theater. They worked together when A7X were recording their last album, because The Rev died while they were recording it, and Portnoy has been saying that he had a great time with them, because he also joined them in one tour for the new album, and he said that he would surely help them if they need.

I’m going to mention their 6 albums and my favorite songs from each album:

- Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001:( To End the Rapture, Warmness on the Soul, Shattered By Broken Dreams, Lips of Deceit.

- Waking the Fallen (2003:( Unholy Confessions, Chapter Four, I Won’t See You Tonight (Part I and II), And All Things Will End.

- City Of Evil (2005:( Beast and the Harlot, Bat Country, Burn it Down, Trashed and Scattered, Seize the Day, M.I.A, Sidewinder.

- Avenged Sevenfold (2007:( Lost, Afterlife, Scream, Critical Acclaim, Gunslinger, Dear God, Unbound (The Wild Ride).

- Diamonds in the Rough (2008:( Girl I Know, Until the End, The Fight, Dancing Dead.

- Nightmare (2010:( 4:00 AM, Nightmare, So Far Away, Victim, Fiction, Save Me, Lost It All.

My favorite album is “City Of Evil” because I started to love them with the songs “Beast and the Harlot” and “Bat Country”, thanks to a guy that used to be my friend, he told me “listen to this band, they’re amazing” and I did it and in that moment I fell in love with them, I think they’re amazing, M. Shadows has a great voice, Synyster is unique with the guitar, and their melodies, the solos, and I love when Zacky and Synyster play together, Zacky is left-handed and Synyster isn’t and when a Synyster solo comes up, they put together their guitars and Synyster plays the solo and Zacky complements him with another solo and that’s amazing.

I highly recommend you this band, especially if you are used or like to hear this type of music, which is, personally, my favorite.

My nutrition friends don’t like this type of music and they make jokes about it, they say to me that is the “devil’s music” but I think that is amazing the job that they’re doing, I listen to them since High school, I was about to enter and I discovered them, It’s my favorite band since then, I like them so much because their music makes me feel better when I feel stressed or mad. Hearing the lyrics, the voice of M. Shadows, and then the solos, it’s just like magic to me.

I haven’t seen them in concert, yet. They came to Arizona last year (if I’m not wrong) but unfortunately I couldn’t go, that made me sad but I know that someday I will be able to go to a concert and I will be very very very very very happy!! It’s a dream that I’m decided to make it come true.

Here is my album collection, I have 4 of 6 albums, the last that I bought is City Of Evil, I was one day at WalMart in Nogales and I was looking in the cd’s and I found that album and I got very excited, I found “Sounding The Seventh Trumpet” too, but unfortunately I had money for just one cd, and I decided to buy “City Of Evil” and now I regret a little because STST is older than COE, and I think that I am going to have some trouble to find it again, but I hope that one day I am going to finally complete my collection.

One of the things that I've noticed is M's voice, he has improved his singing skills over the years, and if you listen a song of the first album, and then listen another from the last album, you can clearly see the difference; he has a beautiful and awesome voice now. And I also think that the music has changed a little, in the first albums the music was more hardcore and noisy than in the new albums, still, I love them in both ways.

And seriously guys, if you haven’t heard them yet, and you are interested, do it. I am sure that you won’t regret it. There are so many songs that have very touching lyrics, especially the ones from the last album, because most of the songs are dedicated to Jimmy, one of them is “Fiction”. I have to say that this song made me cry. It is a very calm song and the voice is actually Jimmy singing, I like it very much. Well I hope you like them, thanks for reading!

Favourite Movies

One of my favorite movies: Across the universe

I would like to talk a little about this movie because it passes in one of my favorite times: the 60’s.

The movie is a musical that talks about the love story of Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Jude (Jim Sturgess) and the psychodelic 60s in the U.S., Jude travels to this country in order to look for his father but he is beaten for the big changes in that time and here is where he falls In love with jude, a pretty rich girl and the sister of his best friend: Max  who a time ago is called to sign up to army and fight in the Vietnam war, but thereafter he was injured and sent back to home. Tired of the changes and movements of that time, they decides to start an amazing travel with Sadie, Jojo and Prudence on the Dr. Robert’s famous bus called “the beyond”.

Many of the characters are based on real artists of the 60’s , starting with “the quarry men”, it was the band thas was used as the foundation for The beatles, and the Sadie and Jojo characters that were inspired in Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. The bus in wich this crew  of friends were traveling also existed and was called  “the furthur” in such a group of persons  called “the merry pranksters”.were traveling.

I really recommend this movie to all those persons  whose loves  that time and the beatles because all the soundtracks are compositions of them, I hope you to watch this movie and enjoy this post =D thank you.

Female President

The crux: Is it Mexico ready for a female president? (Josefina Vazquez Mota)

From my point of view, there's a lot of judgement about Mexico's it is not ready to a female lider, may I ask why you say that?

Even when I don't know much about politics & all that, I think that if she thinks that she is ready to be a president, she has the tools, the conviction and she want that Mexico get better I think she should be the next president.

I haven't seen what proposes she had to offer, but I think that she didn't say "I want to be president without knowledge and tools". She has to have some preparation, studies and most important, know what the people think, feel & want for this country.

Maybe I will be wrong to say all this, but can we give a chance to people that on my opinion want a better country based on their knowledge, studies and preparation?

Serj Tankian: a great voice...a great human being

   

If you ask for a person who inspires me I surely will say Serj Tankian.

    He is musician, composer, producer and recently a poet. 

Serj Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon but he and his parents moved to Los Angeles, CA. he went to an Armenian-American School where he met his friends Malakian and Odadjian, and then they formed a band call soil, after years system of a down.

Serj Tankian has released 8 albums:

-5 when he was in System of a Down

-System of a Down (1998).- from my point of view the best songs from this album are: “sugar”, “suggestions”, “spiders”, and “war?”

-Toxicity (2001).-best songs: “Chop suey”(the most known), “Toxicity”, “prison song”, “atwa” and my favorite “aerials”.

-Steal this album (2002).- “innervision” and “boom”.

-Mezmerize (2005)This album had the best songs: “B.Y.O.B.”, “cigaro”, “revenga”, “question”, and “sad statue”.

-Hypnotize (2005) actually all the songs in this album are good, just for mention some: “attack”, “hypnotize” and the softest song ever from s.o.a.d “lonely day”.

-2 solo albums: all the songs in these albums are written and performed totally by Serj

      - Elect the Dead (2007) Best songs: “Empty walls”, “sky is over”, “saving us”, “feed us” and “lie, lie, lie”.

      -Imperfect Harmonies (2010): “Left of center” and “yes, its genocide”.

-And 1 with Serart; in 2011 he release his book “Glaring Through Oblivion”

    

       Serj is the 26^th in “the top 100 metal vocalist of all time”.

     In his songs Serj talk about drugs, politics, war, and discrimination, all in its good way, he always support programs to help people, animals even programs to improve our environment , that’s why Serj Tankian is a big influence for me.

Janeth'Ballesteros