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.   

Studying law

What is law?

Law is a system of rules the government sets to maintain order in a society and protect harm to persons and property based upon collective human experience. 

Talking about history, two of the most important legislations because of its ancientness are the code of Hammurabi and the roman twelve tables. The incredible fact about these examples of law is that in a civilization so ancient like the roman and Babylonian there was a need to control their relations with rules to maintain an equality state between citizens.

Why studying law?

Well, I am a criminology student but we have a law base, so I can say I am a law student. When I began to take these classes, Roman law, civil law, criminal law, and family law I loved all the knowledge that law left me.

Another reason to study law is its omnipresence, we are always regulated for law, we can go with it or not, but we are always under its coverage. It’s incredible what we can do when we know our rights and when we know our freedom and our limits. That’s why everybody has to know a little of our amazing law.

I seriously considered changing Criminology for law and I thought law probably will work better on me because in that career I have a big chance to help people, I like family law and labor law and with the knowledge I am going to have  and the intention to help I will do something great.

One day I commented to my roman law teacher about the change and he gave me an amazing information… he told me I could stay in criminology and get the law degree only staying one more year in school, I loved that because I am going to have two degrees and it going to help me to get a good job in one of two areas.

I am happy now because I don’t have to decide between two of my favorites careers, I trust that I can do it, and do it well. Studying law is a big experience as well criminology is.

Janeth Ballesteros