Clever Advertisement

Well, I thing this one is a clever ad that makes fun of all the things that are made in Chinese factories. The advertisement makes us think that even the American flag planted on the moon is made in China.
As we could see the advertisement is trying to sell us telescopes so the ad is telling us that the telescopes are really good and their zoom is even capable to let us see the little letters written in the American flag which is situated on the moon.
Of course there are no commercial telescopes capable of showing us that level of detail but the ad is very explicit telling us that if we purchase an Orion Telescope we will see anything we would like to see in the sky without losing any detail. It motivate us to explore the sky in order to discover things we didn't know or things that anybody else know, like a chinese American flag.

My English Class

Several weeks before we started studying English and as level´s last homework we have to do a brief review of the course.

First of all I have to thank ICE for giving me this opportunity to improve the very little knowledge I have about this foreign language. My hope is that in the near future I can use my new skill in my job because we have to relate with a lot of foreign suppliers and we have to read a lot of manuals and specifications charts written in English. Besides English is very useful to me because I often download Anime series from the internet that are usually translated from Japanese to English.

When the coordinator of the course told us that it would take the entire Friday I thought that it could be boring and tiring but now I know I was completely mistaken. The lessons our teacher has been giving to us are far from bored. I don’t know how he can create all that different activities.

I like a lot all the group activities because it let us share with our classmates and learn from them. I think it is appropriate to do all the evaluation we do even twice a day because it force us to study for every class. Some of the classmates think that the homework is a longer than it should but I think it is ok, we have to understand that the only way to learn is practicing. Although I should accept that in the beginning it was a little bit difficult to find the time to do my homework.

Sincerely I feel like I have improved my English skills. I feel myself speaking more fluently and maybe committing fewer mistakes. Of course know I am far from perfection but it motivates me to continue trying when the course continues on the next year.

I want to thank our teacher for all his effort during the course. If someone asks me I would tell that he is a very good teacher and that he is very responsible.

In general terms I feel very satisfied with this English course because it makes me feel like I am really improving with these six hours of pure enjoyment every week.

Success

There are a lot of things we need to improve if we want to be successful in life.

First of all we need to be very self-disciplined. Discipline is really important because we would not achieve anything without it. For example if you are used to wake up late every morning you’ll notice that your day will be very short so it is not enough day to do the all the tasks you need to do. So it is important to wake up early if you want to progress at the things you need to do.

To be an optimistic person is a requirement. If you always think you won’t be a successful person then you will never be a successful person. Don’t let the critics get your optimism down. Some people will try to criticize the things you do with the only intention to harm you.

If your goals are big you will need to be perseverant. That is because big goals are not achieved in one day. In fact, you will need months or even years to achieve this kind of things. So you will need that internal force coming from you that lets you keep trying every day no matter how hard it would get. Remember that light bulbs weren’t invented in one day.

Another thing I would like to talk about is talent. I really don’t think it is necessary to be very talented in order to be successful but talent could be the difference between being “good” and being “the best”. It is good to know that in order to be successful most of the times it is enough if you are good at it. You will need to be the best only if you want to break a world record or something like that. But the advice I give you is try to get aware about which are the talents you have and then exploit them.

So if you want to be a successful person don’t forget that it is necessary to make certain sacrifices and you must do a lot of effort. Don’t forget to exploit all the talent you have and if you are not talented at the things you want to achieve don’t worry, it really doesn’t matter at all.

Comments about songs

Life for rent – Dido:

This song talks about a person who is afraid to get involved in a serious relationship because of the pain suffered if the relationship fails.

The person says that she always loved freedom and traveling and never thought about things like settle down but she is really puzzle because she now feels strange. I think she now feels the need to stay with that person she knew.

She is concerned because she feels like she never will fall in love and she says that the reason of that is that in her early years she never had a home enough time to get used to it and settle and make friends and everything else, but maybe she is afraid to get in love with all that it involves.

Evidently she feels like she will be ok if she keeps her heart shielded against every intruder but she regrets of it because she thinks that she is not really living her life and she is wasting it.

Good bye Alice in Wonderland – Jewel

Jewel’s song is about a girl who grew up in show business living a life with all the inconvenience found in show business, like living in hotel rooms because of the tours, being completely alone and living a fantasy where everything is far from realm.

While she was living this fantasy life apparently she fell in love with someone who betrayed her and then she started to understand that she was trying to find in him something she never had before and he didn’t gave her, real love.

Before that she started thinking that this kind of life wasn’t what she expected and she felt so disappointed. Because of this she decided to leave show business and start to live a real life without all the fake things she was living before.

I think this is a very well written song that makes us think about the things we have done in our life and if it is what we wanted to be. Also tells us that it is never too late for a change.

Smokers found more prone to dementia

Comments about a NYT Article: Smokers found more prone to dementia

With this image I ilustrate the quote I put last week: “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken”.
A new study reveals that middle-aged smokers and heavy smokers are at more than double the risk to develop dementia later in life.

It is incredible all the bad things we listen everyday about the dangers of smoking like lung cancer, passive smoker diseases, addiction to nicotine, poor athletic performance, troubles in familiar finances and so many other things that makes us think smoking is the worst thing a smart person could do. Nevertheless a lot of young people start smoking every day, a lot of middle-aged people smoke one, two or more cigarette packs a day and a lot of old people are just trying to deal with all the diseases they carry because they were smoking on their youth.

The article I present here show us another reason for stop smoking. Obviously none of us want to be a lunatic so I hope this little homework could help somebody with his smoking problem before it is too late.

The research analyzed twenty-three thousand people and twenty-three years later the results tells us that a quarter of the group had dementia, including here the ones who have Alzheimer’s disease and the ones with vascular dementia.

It gets clear from the article that the more a person smoke the more damaged he can be. And it is well known that the people that surround a smoker get very damaged too with the same problems that affect a smokers.

Article:
Risks: Smokers Found More Prone to Dementia
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: October 29, 2010
Middle-aged smokers are far more likely than nonsmokers to
develop dementia later in life, and heavy smokers — those who go
through more than two packs a day — are at more than double the
risk, a new study reports.
Researchers analyzed the data of
23,123 health plan members who
participated in a voluntary exam and
health behavior survey from 1978 to
1985, when they were 50 to 60 years old.
Twenty-three years later, about one-quarter of the group, or 5,367, had dementia,
including 1,136 with Alzheimer’s disease and 416 with vascular dementia.
After adjusting for other factors, the researchers concluded that pack-a-day smokers
were 37 percent more likely than nonsmokers to develop dementia, and the risks went
up sharply with increased smoking; 44 percent for one to two packs a day; and twice the
risk for more than two packs.
Former smokers and those who smoked less than half a pack a day were no more likely
to develop dementia than nonsmokers. The study was published online on Monday in
Archives of Internal Medicine.
To its lead author, Dr. Rachel A. Whitmer, an epidemiologist with the Kaiser
Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., the study offered a silver lining:
unlike age and family history, she said, “this is one risk factor for dementia that can be
changed.”

Summary of presentations

Now I’m going to write a summary for the presentations we saw in the last class:

Carlos Castañeda:

He was a Peruvian-American anthropologist who write a lot of books about his knowledge in Shamanism. His books generated a lot of controversy in the academic community because of the veracity of his writings.

Mr. Chaverri´s family, job and English class:

Chaverri´s family is conformed by Chaverri, his wife and his son and I´m sure they are a beautiful family. She is a psychologist who works in San José and Chaverri junior studies in High School. He wants to be a doctor some day, but as we all know that is a very expensive carrier, so this is the point where Chaverri´s job acquire importance. His job allows him to finance his son´s carrier and to develop himself. Talking about develop, he has been studying English, did you now? ;-)

White Sharks:

I didn´t know  that over 50% of white shark attacks take place in Northern California but it is very dangerous for humans who used to visit this places.

It turns evident how the food chain works: salmons attract seals and sea lions end they attract sharks, so if you go to northern California and see a salmon run like hell!

Un actor se prepara:

It is a little peculiar that in our last class we were talking about how we express our feelings through our expressions and then Maria José did a presentation about a profession of expert people in expressing feelings in front of a camera or the public.

Being an actor/actress is an interesting carrier full of glamour and fame but equally is full of big sacrifices and things that not everybody can tolerate.

Rich father, poor father:

In this culture, where the consumption of goods is so ingrained, it is important to learn how to behave when you have some money in your hands. Sales men make spark our eyes with a lot of promotions and discounts of things we don´t really need, but you have to buy it just because your neighbor has it. I have the believe that we should expend only in the things that make our life better like health, education and others and avoid to buy things that we´ll throw to the garbage car in the next year.

Haitian Voodoo:

It is interesting how this kind of religion or something like that is so ingrained in caribbean countries, being a mixture of Catholicism and African religions and showing a lot of weird things like witchcraft. Personally, I don´t know how people can believe in those kind of things like zombies, supernatural powers and puppets.

Open bars:

There are a lot of teenagers in danger of become victims of alcohol and drugs and that is because, a lot of parents don´t care where their sons are. Other parents involve their own sons in this kind of behavior and the authorities make nothing about it. My question is: if it was so easy for the journalist to get to an Open Bar, why it is so difficult for the cops?

Micro Speech:

What Henry says is so true. We lack the ability to talk in front of people, there are exceptions but are not a common thing. Without a doubt we have to learn how to express in a very fluent and understandable way.

One century of electric activity in Costa Rica:

It is surprising how San José was one of the first cities with electric illumination. We have to be very proud of the role our company has been playing through all these years, and how it helped to develop the people and the industry in this country.

3 Quotes

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary”.
Vince Lombardi – American football coach, he was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 60’s. The NFL trophy is named in his honor.

This quote is so explicit that is difficult to tell something about it. It just reminds us that there is no way that we can achieve important things without a good amount of effort. There are a lot of us that sometimes just wait until good things happen to us, but in that case we are just loosing time.

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken”.
Warren Buffett – He is an American investor, industrialist and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world.

The quote says that we have to eradicate our bad habits and stimulate new and good habits before it is too late. Every day we repeat a lot of actions during the mayor part of the day and there are very few things we do for the first time. So it is very convenient that we try to acquire healthy routines that makes us grow a little every day.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”.
Winston Churchill – He was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War (WWII)

That’s the reason because we have to be very careful with the things we say. We can do harm to people by just telling things that aren’t true. Lies have the “ability” to spread as fast as light speed so it is a powerful weapon that we have to avoid to use. I know I am saying impossible things, it is impossible to stop lying. We are humans and we have an evolved brain that allow us to elaborate complex lies - that is one thing that makes us different to animals – but at least we should try to minimize the damage done with every lie we say.