Trip Diary

1st Day:

After a long voyage, we finally got into London. We took a nice ride on bus from the airport to the hotel, at Holland park, where some nice squirrels were awaiting our arrival.

After that, we proceeded to leave our cases at the hotel, and then we  head to  the National Art Gallery, but if it had been for me, I simply would have stayed sleeping in my room. Once there, we took some time appreciating the art, and then, I finally gave my awesome presentation. At that point, I thought that we could go to the hotel now and rest, but no, we went to see the mighty Big Ben, the London Eye and the elegant Buckingham Palace, which I must say, they were pretty beautiful. 

Finally, we walked through some kind of park till we arrived at the restaurant, where we had a good meal, and then proceeded to the hotel and get some rest.

2nd Day:

We woke up and got a had a quick breakfast. Today we were going to see the Globe Theatre, but I didn't know till we got there. Just before getting there, we walked through a bridge the Tamesi River, it was a nice sight. When we got there, we were welcomed by a kind worker of the theatre, and we had a nice walk around there, which I enjoyed and found it very nice.

After that, we had some break time for ourselves, and we proceeded to get some food.

Later on, we went to the Natural Science Museum, and I totally enjoyed it! There were a lot of stuff about nature, since animals from astronomy. The only thing that I didn't like about it, it was the fact that the dinosaur’s zone was closed for that day, I certainly like dinos, and I wanted to see them. We also wanted to go to the Science research museum, but it was late and both buildings were about to close. And for the end of the day, we went to Harrods Center, it was amazing the things they had there, but dang, it was expensive!

3d Day:

Today we went to the British Museum, and it was also amazing, I didn’t like it so much in comparison with the other one, though. But it also had great stuff from all over the world.

We had a very good meal at Camden Town, I ate a Mexican Burrito, and I can say that it was the best I ever tasted. But the best of the day was the musical. It was amazing! The best investment of the entire trip. I would have taken a lot of pictures if it was allowed, but unfortunately, it wasn’t. Seriously, I liked it so much.

4^th Day:

Finally, the day had come, I was both excited and sad for leaving. On one hand because I wanted to go home, and on the other, because I knew that the exams were getting closer… We went with a small group to Madame Tussauds to the wax museum. There were a lot of celebrities and important characters of history, all of them very well done. I took a lot of photos, but I think that this is my favorite:

It was a nice trip, and I would like to go back there again, I will miss London!

My favorite videogame

In this essay, I’m going to talk about my favorite videogame, and explain its plot and  some characters.

Three or four years ago, I played for the first time Mass Effect, a sci-fi RPG videogame, on the PC platform. The game was aired on 2005 and since that moment it has become one of the most well received videogames.

Since the first moments that I played, I quickly fell in love with its well written story and complex and developed characters.

Plot:

The game is set in the year 2183; 35 years after humans discovered the ruins of an ancient race called the Protheans on Mars. With the technology from the ruins, humanity learned the secrets of mass effect physics and element zero, unlocking faster than light travel. Humans also discovered the mass relay network that threaded the galaxy, being able to cross thousands of light-years in a moment. Humanity began its journey in space, encountering various alien races and establishing itself on the galactic stage

You play as the commander Shepard, and your mission will be to destroy a mysterious enemy that threats the galaxy every 50.000 years…

the Citadel

Characters: (my favorite character)

Shepard was born on the year 2154, he’s a graduate of the Systems Alliance N7 special forces program, and is initially assigned to the SSV Normandy in 2183 as Executive Officer. Later, he becomes the first human to join the Spectres, an elite special task force for the Citadel Council (a council that represents every species of the galaxy)

Shepard

Garrus Vakarian is a turian, a member of C-Sec's Investigation Division. He was born at Palaven, the Turian’s home world. Like most turians, Garrus had his military training at fifteen, but later followed his father's path to become a C-Sec officer. He was responsible for the investigation of Saren Arterius (the main villain), the Council's top Spectre, after the Alliance claimed Saren had gone rogue. Even his bosses told him that the investigation was over, he decided to defy the Executor's order and pursue another lead on his own. Then, Garrus joined Commander Shepard's team to help defeat Saren.

Garrus

Urdnot Wrex, born at Tuchanka, the krogan’s home world, is a famous krogan mercenary and bounty hunter. Wrex is also one of the last krogan Battlemasters: rare individuals who combine powerful biotic abilities with the devastating firepower of advanced weaponry. A long-lived krogan who has had many adventures, he has heard of Commander Shepard on his travels, and respects the Commander as a fellow warrior.

Wrex

My favorite TV show (CORRECTED)

South Park characters, Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny

Among all the TV shows that are broadcasted today, I think that my favorite would be South Park.

Some people think that it’s for just for kids, but definitely It’s not, and I keep saying to them that they haven’t even watched it. There are a lot of reason why it’s my favorite TV show, it always has some kind of humor, sometimes it’s more refined, and sometimes it’s so vulgar and lame, so there’s always some variety.

But it’s not just its humor, almost every chapter has a hidden message, which sometime it is so helpful, and treats some things about our society with a satiric attitude.

In conclusion, I think that South Park is one of the most complete and helpful TV shows ever done.




                                          Favorite moment: 

Feminism

Feminism

Lately, there’s been a lot of problems with sexism and related stuff, and I’ll give my opinion about it.

I understand that some women are angry with men, since all along our history, women have been repressed, while men took all the important things. All these women that try to fight for equal right, opportunities, etc… have my support, and I hope that everyone else thinks like me, but then, there’s a “special group”, called the feminazis. These “feminazis” (it’s not an official name) are known for doing what men have been doing all this time, and seems that they just want to take revenge. It’s a shame, because a lot of people think about this group when you says feminism, and it destroys the good and honorable work of the feminists.

In conclusion, I agree with the feminism, as long as it seeks equality of everything between man and women.

Book review

                                                    Perdition's Crossing cover

The book I’ll review is called Perdtion’s Crossing, written by James Waugh. It’s a short book of 10 pages; it belongs to the Starcraft series.

Plot:

The story turns around James Raynor, the marshal of Mar Sara colony. His role is to keep the region calmed and and make sure that everyone accomplishes the law. In this occasion he gets the mission to escort a group of prisoners to prison. It won’t be easy, since he has to cross the Perdition’s Crossing, an area where all the outlaw people go to seek fortune in not very honest ways. He has some difficulties with his own prisoners, but in the end, the thing will go correctly.  


 James Raynor concept art

My favorite music artist

There are a lot of music artists nowadays, but, since a very long time, I have clear idea about my favorite one.

Before I mention it, I’ll make some honorable mentions that I like a lot too.

Fleetwod Mac:

I’ve discovered this band not so long ago, and I regret it. I knew its principal vocalist from before, who is Stevie Nicks, but in combination with the other members, they rock a lot!

Blue Öyster Cult:

I discovered this band about one or two years ago, and almost every day I discover a new song, and I love it. They do a lot of rock kinds, from hard rock to psychodelic music, but they always manage to get me whatever they do!

Finaly…

And finally, my favorite music artist: I discovered them with the Transformers movie, which I saw when I was a child. In that move, there was a song called “What I’ve done”, and that was their first song I heard. I’m talking about Linkin Park. This band aired with their first album called “Hybrid Theory”, in the year 1998. Since then, they’ve been working in a lot of new albums, and experienced with different types of music, which caused a bit of hate against them, but I keep saying that they are the best.

What I've done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ

Linkin Park members

Movie review

The planet of the apes cover

The movie that I’ll review in this essay is named: The Planet of the Apes and I’m sure you’ve heard about it.

The movie was aired in 1968, and was directed by Franklin Shaffner. It was inspired on the novel with the samen name.

Plot:

In the year 1974, four astronauts are sent to space in an exploring mission. The captain of the ship, George Taylor (Charlton Heston) has calculated that, with the Theory of Relativity of Einstein, the time on Earth will be accelerated. The mission has taken 18 months; while on Earth have passed 2006 years since the launch of the ship.

During the voyage, a malfunction in the ship has caused the death of one of the astronauts, and finally, the ship ends up falling into an unknown planet. The three remaining explorers get out of the ship and start exploring this new planet. A bit later, they discover life form, but in a weird and disturbing way. In this world, “humans” behave like animals, and they are being exterminated by some kind race of apes.

Our three humans end up separating from each other, and get captured by the apes. Since now, the story will focus on the captain Taylor, and with him, we’ll learn about this strange ape society, and the mysterious story of this unknown planet…  

A scene from the movie

Sacred temple from 16th century that was hidden emerges from lake due to severe drought (News)

News:

Recently in Mexico, near the small town of Santa María Jalapa del Marques, in the south-east of Mexico, a religious temple has been discovered again.

That long-hidden religious temple of the 16^th century has been discovered thanks to a long and drought, which caused a decrease of the 40 per cent of the water level.

The temple was built by monks of the Dominican order, who came to the area around the 15^th century. The building has been deteriorating since those ages, considering that it’s been flooding periodically, and then, once more, getting visible due to droughts and other causes, repeating the process since a lot of time.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/sacred-temple-16th-century-hidden-7539574

Female-only police unit whose officers wore skimpy uniforms and high-heels is disbanded for damaging the force's image (News)

News:

Recently in Mexico, a just women police body has been disbanded. The reason is simple. This police unit was just composed by females, and all of them were wearing a sexy uniform as they were doing their work. This police body has not been completely removed, it just has been remodeled. Now, they wear normal uniform as everyone else, and participate in normal police activities. One of the woman of the unit said that it’s better this way, since they get a lot more respect and don’t get taken as a joke.

Opinion:

I think also that it’s been a good thing to do, since I think that cops must get considered as serious and respectable people, as long as they do their respective jobs correctly, no matter the sex they are.

Link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/female-only-police-unit-whose-7541396#rlabs=3%20rt$category%20p$10

Paris is too dirty for Japanese tourists (News)

Summary:

Since Paris is one of the top places visited by Japanese tourists, with 600.000 tourists visiting the capital per year, some Tokyo tourisms agencies have claimed that the city is too dirty, and they began a cleanup operation. They want to make the city even more clean, all of that for their own people and tourists, who have very high standards. Paris is visited by that amount of Japanese tourists because it exists there the idealization of the ”love city”, but then, when they come, the don’t see what they expected, and then want to make the city better.

Opinion:

I think that it’s exaggerated; some people think that Paris is a leisure park, but it’s like any other city in the world.

Link:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/paris-too-dirty-japanese-tokyo-7542884

3 Places to visit in London

My top 3 places to visit in London are the following ones:

The Big Ben: It's the typical thing that comes to your head when someone say London. It's the tower of the Westminster Palace, although the name "Big Ben" is only the name of the bell in the tower.

The London Eye: Also known as the Milennium Wheel, it's one of the biggest lookout in the world. It's 135m tall and it's located on couny hall and next to the defence ministery's offices.

Buckingham Palace: It's the official residence of the royal family and the place where plitical-related meetings take place. It has the Royal Collection, a set of extraordinary paintings collected by different monarchs.

Silicon Valley bigwigs fund AI to protect humanity (tech work)

Link:

http://www.cnet.com/news/silicon-valley-bigwigs-fund-artificial-intelligence-nonprofit/

Summary:

This news talks about the progress in the Artificial Intelligence science field. Since Artificial Inteligence is a new science and has been already set out as a bad thing in movies and books, scientists are cynical towards it.

Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Peter Thier, each one of them being heavy technology investors, founded not so long ago the Artificial Inteligence field with aproximately 1 billion dollars with the objective of making the field progress.

But at the same time, there's people who sees this as a worrying subject, and they think that the AI field should grow slowly and controlled. For example, some of these people are: The Window's co-founder Bill Gates, the renowned scientist Stephen Hawking...

A non-profit research company called OpenAI has been recently open to ensure that the AI soesn't get out from human's hands. Currently, the research groups lead by Ilya Sutskever, who's a research scientist in google. OpenAI isn't the first group that tried to contain the AI, AI specialists of all around the world signed a letter issued by the Future Of Life Institute, that pledges to safely and carefuly coordinate the progress in the field.

Opinion:

I think that this is a complicate subject. We barely know what the AI could do if it grows too much, and could be dangerous. So I agree with every one who tries to keep it under safe contol and concerns about the discontroled growth of science in general.

Nip Tuck dialogue (podcast)