News comment: "Oldest panda relative may have been Spanish"

Let's move on to the probably most serious news or even posts of this whole blog (Who said news can't be combined with humour?). After my last post, the BBC got angry on me because I stated to have an intimate business relationship with them. Since they don't want do cooperate anymore I decided to give the CNN a chance. Actually they were waiting for that moment since the very creation of this blog! Take a look at this news: We from CNN are against stupid hyperlink jokes!

The pandas. We all love them. They're just so incredibly cute and adorable. Don't you think? :)

We all associate them with Asia. Basically because they live there. Seems legit, right?

Will funny images like this one stop being about racism and start to talk rather about immigration?

But now, there are scientists suggesting that there may be a possibility that our beloved pandas are actually OUR beloved pandas.

However, the scientists are not claiming to know that pandas evolved in Spain and then migrated to China. There is not enough information to make this statement.
So, don't go around calling this the missing panda link, Abella said. It's certainly possible that there are other older panda relative fossils out there waiting to be found. Moreover, we don't know for sure what the panda family tree looked like.

(Yeah, but it's enough reasoning to strike us with this promising title? These journalists nowadays...)

So, it could be possible that the black, white, Asian and chubby guys aren't actually originally Asian. What would that mean? Which effect would that have for the evolution of the 21st century? And the Mayas, did they know that, too?

Well, I think the hypothesis to assign a Spanish origin to the black and white cat-foots, better known as Ailuropoda melanoleuca, also known as giant panda, but commonly known as panda (let's take a breath...) isn't too farfetched. As an habitual internet user you've probably already seen popular statements like:

 Oh dear, this is so insanely cute, I'm going to have diabetes!

As you can see, pandas reflect quite well the common Spanish mindset. Because I don't know how many times I've seen this sentence with several panda pictures. I think this makes increase the possibilities that pandas maybe are related to Rajoy, Belen Esteban or all these famous and respected people who seem to A: not to have received the appropriate education or B: give a **** to the education.

Oh, this has just reminded me: I should translate the text in the image since this is an English blog!

Well, essentially it is talking about the Spanish temper and bullfighting. Oh dear, that was the stereotype chip in my brain, I feel terribly sorry.

Actually we could translate it as "asteriskasteriskasteriskasterisk school, I'm going to be a panda."

Take that, BBC. This is was the people care about!

News comment: "Black Friday: US begins its key sales weekend"

My second news comment, thanks to my intimate partners from BBC for providing me these news ESPECIALLY for my blog :) I've already foreseen in the past that you will click on me!

The faces of the women in the center of the picture are just... priceless (somehow this is ironic talking about Black Friday, isn't it?).

Above you can see a picture of the animals we usually call "human" in their habitual living environment competing against each other to get the booty: The new iPhone 8 with an even larger display for just 799,97$ instead of 799,99$. Great deal, isn't it?

And this is only thanks to Black Friday :) It's interesting that we talked about it in our English class last Friday because I was reading many news on several videogame news sites about the special deals on "Black Friday" and I didn't make the effort to check what it actually was (everyday I seem to be a bit lazier :S).

In general, it's a nice idea to have a day when the prices fall and consumers can purchase products for less money than it would be usual. But not if these consumers which are actually people have to transform into wild beasts. And saying this, I'm insulting the poor authentic wild beasts.

It's simply shocking to hear reports like these:

As shoppers flocked to the stores, various incidents were reported:

• A man reportedly pulled a gun on a shopper who punched him in the face while the two were waiting in line in a Sears store in South Park Mall in San Antonio, Texas late on Thursday
• A couple heading into a Wal-mart on Thursday night was hit by an SUV driven by a driver police suspect was under the influence of alcohol
• Video footage emerged from a Wal-mart store in Moultrie, Georgia, showing a large crowd of people pushing, yelling and grabbing boxes of mobile phones off a shelf; Wal-mart said nobody was injured

If everyone would act in a civilized way, the Black Friday wouldn't be as bad. But what do I expect from the United States... Not that I've got something against the biggest part of the North American population (and not America as we always generalize precisely in favour of the US' point of view), it's just that we all know the way things work there and how the people let themselves be controlled easily by the media and the commerce. It's nothing we European could be proud of, but I think we still have a majority of thinking people and at least in school we're taught to become criticizing and wise individuals.

News comment: "Catalonia vote: The French who see Barcelona as their capital"

Let's do the news comments! I had so many ideas for more unrestricted your-say posts... But no! You wanted me to write news comments...

Just a joke, you know I like to comment current happenings :)

This is the news I chose (from the BBC news webpage): Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

In my opinion Catalonia is in the middle of a very important process. Step by step, Catalonia gets more international acknowledge. To be honest, I had never heard anything about this little nation until I came here and the life threw me just inside this little mess of independists, ridiculing Spaniards, South American immigrants and people who just want to live their life and don't care about all the political problems.

So it was a completely new culture for me and as you remember from my little presentation I was still quite immaTURE when I came here. The anything I was worrying about was why on earth I had to learn two different languages. In the first place, I simply thought that all those "Catalonia should be an independent nation" and the "We can't lose our own language and our own culture" things were ridiculous. But today, now that I've lived here for four years, I can only support Catalonia and wish it the best to his way on being a widely recognized state.

It's interesting to see how even French people in the southern part of their huge country have still maintained the Catalan culture and are feel even prouder of it than of their actual home state (given the current politico-geographical situation). The main statement of the news: "The French who see Barcelona as their capital" made me curious.

"The French government is too centralist," says Jordi Vera, leader of the French part of the CDC, and a Perpignan city councillor. "Paris is 500 miles (800km) away. Barcelona is our capital."

There is much to gain. This is one of the poorest parts of France - Catalonia is one of the richest parts of Spain.

Vera asks me how I think the Scottish will vote in their referendum in 2014, before continuing: "This is an historic time for the Catalan people. This region is a laboratory to test how a Europe of smaller states might work."

He too drifts between French and Catalan in his conversation. "Catalan could become an official language of the European Union," he says. "That would mean France would finally have to recognise it."

Catalonia, being one of the richest parts of Spain, in economical and cultural factors, deserves to be an independent nation if the other option means to be trampled by the rest of Spain. I mean, would you steal money from your own mother who is feeding you and making you possible to life? I would feel tremendously embarrassed. To talk about the elections tomorrow, I can't really say who I would vote if I could. The only thing I can say is that I wish the best for Catalonia's future and someone to be its representant and guide who really cares about his nation, its folks and its relationship with the rest of the world.

Film critic: The Impossible

That's iiimpossiiiibleeeeeeeee! Many students use this film for their critic... Apparently, the producers and above all the publicity have done a good job. I'm really sorry (I say this a lot lately...) to force you to read another critic another time... If you still haven't seen the movie, you probably don't want to anymore because you may already be sick of it. It's just that from the day I saw the movie I thought about writing about it in my film critic...

Well, let's hope that I can still entertain you. So let's begin!

Impossible to stay calm

This movie will take you, shake you around, put you underwater, get you out and soothe you just to begin another time from the beginning, until it eventually kisses you on your forehead when the final scene is on the screen. These things are supposed to happen only to the protagonists, but you will feel alike.

We experience the story (based on the reality) of a family in the middle of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. A Spanish couple, Maria (Naomi Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor), with their 3 children, Lucas, Thomas and Simon, stay on a hotel in Thailand during the Christmas vacations. Everything's right, until one day the disaster happens. The tsunami reaches the coast of Thailand and causes the death of thousands of people. And the family will be separated from each other. Will they all survive and get finally back together? 

I didn't know I could love and hate a film at the same time as much as I do it with this one. It stroke me when I heard that it was a movie of a Spanish production. Such superstars like Ewan McGregor (Star Wars Episode I-III, Moulin Rouge) and Naomi Watts (Ring, King Kong) in such a costly film and all that from our own country? Wow! It was a nice surprise to hear that. The effects of the film are just outstanding. At many points I just got the feeling to be inside the catastrophe by myself. Also, I felt like the protagonists and it just made me think of how I would react in a fatal situation like this one. The dramatic moments are very emotional. Very emotional. I had to try to hold back my tears and it seemed that I was the only in our row who could accomplish that hard challenge. And yes, there weren't just girls in my row.

But exactly these dramatic points, the moments when you see the injuries of the protagonists, when you feel along with them and start to suffer like you would be there between all the dead and half-dead people... it's exactly why this film is a masterpiece in two ways. First, you're totally inside the plot and it's a never previously felt experience. Although I think that, to reach that point, you need to watch the film in the cinema on the big screen in the dark room and with the high-quality sound effects. Second, it will be a torture for you because you just want to escape from all that dead and desperation the movie transmits you. Just like the victims of the tsunami you only want to get out off that depressing place and return to your normal life.

I would say that it's a movie for people who want to get a new experience and see those dramatic events by the point of view of the victims. Probably, on a little screen at home it wouldn't have the same effect, so if the film's still in the cinema next to you, I highly recommend you to think about a visit to Thailand 8 years ago. This is nothing for auditors with bad nerves, so better bring a package of handkerchiefs. Your eyes and your nose and the ones of your neighbours in the hall will be grateful.

*** out of 4, it's definitely worth the money. Brilliant film with very good acting!

Humour

Oh, dear, now I may have raised false hopes... Because I actually think that an important factor of humour is if you are waiting for something funny or if it catches you by surprise. Just think of it. Usually, it's easier for you to laugh about something you didn't see coming. The most simple example would be a joke you already know. Maybe it's the best joke you heard in your entire life and you had an orgasm of laughter the first time they explained it to you. Perhaps the second time it's still funny, but no as much as it was previously. It's because you already know what awaits you. This is so self-evident for us that it almost sounds stupid, but if something is so funny, why can't you laugh at it the 3000th time if you could hardly breathe between the different "ha"s in first place?

Oh dear, what a lame one...

And this is just another point: Why is it so difficult to be funny when you absolutely want to? The typical situation, you're with the girl or the boy or the alien you like and you try to say something to make him/her/it laugh. That's the moment when you say the most stupid things in your whole life.

Or even worse. You know that awkward feeling when you're trying to tell a joke and at the perfect moment, when you're supposed to provoke a series of chemical reactions which makes the other roll laughing on the floor, you have a **** ****** ******* blooper (don't worry, I already know the vocabulary to place in here, it's not that I just didn't know which adjectives to put in here... noooooooo)?

So, humour is determined by a series of factors. Just like the weather which depends on a series of conditions or my mood on Monday morning when I go to sch... oh no, wait, there aren't any factors for my mood on Monday morning. The Monday morning IS the factor. I think I have something like morningphobia. Believe me, the morning is evil. EVIL!

But I'm getting off the point, there are several factors which determine the humorous situation. The factors that affect the active member, the one who tries to be funny and the passive member, the one who receives the visual or auditive signals from the passive member.

(Oh wow, I sound so scientific! ^___^)

No, let's be a bit more serious. Serious. Talking about humour. Oh my god.

Factors for the active member

- Mental maturity and culture: You know these kinds of jokes that appear in TV programmes for little children? Message to the people who use these jokes. They appear in programmes for children BECAUSE THEY ARE FOR CHILDREN. Seriously (oh no, not this subtly ironically loaded word again), it is not funny at all when a sixteen-years-old adoslescent says "dirty words" instead of a normal sentence. And there are many who do that...

*If you don't know what dirty words are, you aren't actually an Internet user or you've never seen a talk show in TV. Congratulations!

- Spontaneity: There are comedians on TV who offer you a stand up of 7 minutes and they literally shoot at you like they had a machine gun with bullets of payoffs. But these are professionals. They need hours and hours of work to prepare their gags! Don't try to be like them and force yourself to comment something funny on everything. The timing is tremendously important! Just like in every situation of our daily life. Better you are really funny two times a months than you try to make a joke 100 times and you aren't funny at all.

-etc. (this simple et cetera makes me sound like "I know even more factors, but I'm so cool that I can sum up this topic to the two most impotant ones", doesn't it? Doesn't it? :D )

Factors for the passive member

- Mood or state of mind: On Monday morning nothing makes me laugh. Only the melodic sound of a news reporter explaining that there's no school today could perform the miracle.

- The prehumorous knowledge or expectation (to invent new terms should be considered a talent): If you were concentrated while you were reading my post you will remember that I talked about this earlier. If not, then read it now! You should feel ashamed! >:(

- etc. pp. (this "pp." is not meant to give you any hints about my political attitude)... (no, really not)... (now I made you doubt, eeeeeh? :D)... (I really abuse parentheses)

Look what I've just found on Google looking for "humor"... That's suspicious.

All the concepts described in this text aren't scientifically proven because you can't find them on Wikipedia. Sorry dude, you can't do copy and paste.

Great Teacher Onizuka

This one may be interesting especially for teachers! Maaaaaaaaaaaybe, I mean, peeeeerhaaaaaaps there coooould be aaaany teacher that reads my blog... Just a theory of mine. Never mind.

As the title suggests, there is a man called Onizuka (actually Eikichi Onizuka; Onizuka is his last name, but we know him better as Onizuka) who is just a great teacher. Hence the name. 

Take that, defenders of surprising writing techniques!

You remember I said that I see the two animes a bit like the opposites of each other? Well, I have to say that I'm still watching Great Teacher Onizuka while I've seen Death Note already two times. Naturally, there are more differences between them. Death Note is an anime that sucks you into itself and leaves you with a smoking head. But Great Teacher Onizuka has exactly the reversed effect. When I come home after a long day of work and I just feel down and stressed and depressed by everything and everyone, I watch one or two episode of this great anime and I feel much better and more relaxed. But let's explain a bit what it's about.

This one is more comedy and social. Great Teacher Onizuka (often abbreviated as GTO) is based on the eponymous manga series which is actually a continuation of Shonan Junai Gumi written and illustrated both by Tohru Fujisawa.

Eikichi Onizuka is 22 years old and has been a member of a motorbike gang in his recent past. But now he takes the decision to do something good in his life and get a good job. He wants to be a teacher. The young well-conditioned man is just everything but not the typical example for a good teacher. He has a wild past, he doesn't have any studies, he doesn't know what to do with his life. How could somebody like him be a good teacher? Oh, he can. And many teachers could take an example of him, believe me.

But I don't want to anticipate. And I should mention some more things about Onizuka. To be honest, another of his (most important) reasons to be a teacher... well, the school uniforms. And basically the girls in it. Don't think of him as a pedophile! He's just... well, he's still virgin and he's easily excited when it comes to girl in good-looking clothes... Or directly, good-looking girls! And who could judge him for that? I mean, he's a man! 

But I assure you, Onizuka has honourable objectives and opinions. At the beginning of the story he gets an internship as a homeroom teacher in a high school. He just can't wait to see all the cute girls and when he enters his class, his facial expression (which is hilarious, besides) talks for him: There is only ONE girl in his class. But he doesn't give up so easily and does his best. Just that one girl seems to have many problems at home because her parents are always discussing and one night she meets up in a park with Onizuka. He begs him to let her sleep at his house that night because she couldn't stand her parents' yelling anymore. Just imagine how lucky Onizuka must have felt on his inside at that moment... 

Later, at Onizuka's place, when it just seems that the girls tries to seduce him... *Flash* A photo. The girl tricked to Onizuka to make the pictures of him how HE was trying to seduce a student. And some guys of her class were her accomplices. The girl results to be a devil dressed like an angel that just tries to destroy the life of every teacher she has. But Onizuka doesn't give up just like that and teaches the girl and her friends a lesson, in his own way.

 Eikichi Onizuka, master of hilarous grimaces and disguises

Some episodes later Onizuka will get a fixed job in another high school and there he will be the homeroom teacher of the class to be known as the most difficult of all Tokyo. Since then, every teacher to be enlisted to that class, lost his job after some very bad experiencies with the students. But Onizuka takes the challenge. The students of that class turn out to have many personal problems and Onizuka will help them out and make friends with some of them. But he will have to resist many problems because there are more than one person who don't want him to be a teacher. And the way Onizuka solves his conflicts is always unique: he will destroy several times a certain car, jump several times of buildings, do a motorbike race, a swimming competition...

As you can see, it's a unique anime with a unique character with a unique behaviour. But all these things make this anime a refreshing experience in our conservative culture. And to be honest, I think Onizuka taught me some lessons, too.

And as always, I do the whole work for you and present you the first episode (it's a double episode of about 45 minutes, but only the first one):

Dear, now that I've seen that picture I'm hungry T_T

Death Note

Now, let's move on to the 3rd game of the 999 series...!

Psych! :P No, don't worry, I'm finally changing the topic. It's still very "chrisish" and maybe it won't interest you too much, but well, that's why I try to write the posts in a funny way so you won't sleep drooling on your computer (or iPad...). 

My last post came to an end with a little cliffhanger. "Talking about animes..." was the last sentence.

And that's what I'm going to talk to you about in my next two posts. Two animes I enjoyed so much that I can't resist to tell you about them. And I think they're actually kind of opposites one to the other. The two are short ones (approximately 40 episodes each), so you're invited to convince yourself of their quality. But now, let's begin with the first one.

Death Note is, just like most anime series, based on a manga, by the writer Tsugumi Ohba and the manga artist Takeshi Obata. The main character's name is Light Yagami (just his name is amazing) and he's a high school student at the beginning of the story. But Light is extremely intelligent, actually he seems to be quite bored in school and of the everyday life. He's sick of the daily news of murders, kidnappings and all the other crimes and he would like to live in a world without any bad people doing bad things.

Then, one day during class, while he was looking out of the window, he saw a black note book falling down to the ground. He didn't know where it came from so he was curious about it. Later, he went to the place where the book had fallen and examined the note book. What he found wasn't just a normal note book. On the cover he read "Death Note". Then he opened the first sites ob the book and began to study them. There was apparently a kind manual with rules of how to use the death note. These were the following ones:

• The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.
• This notebook will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
• If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
• If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
• After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Just as everyone would do, Light thought that it was a kind of a very sick joke. But for some reason, he didn't decide to throw it away and so he took it home. His thoughts couldn't resist to return one time after another to the strange book that he had found. He was saying to himself that it had to be a stupid invention of an ill mind and that it was just nonsense. But finally Light wanted to try it out, his human curiosity won against his rational intellect. That evening he went to a shop and there he saw how a little group of men were molesting a woman outside. Light was just disgusted by the actions of the men and when one of them said the full man of one of his companions (Puuuuuure coincidence!), he decided to use him to do the experiment with the book. So he wrote down the name he just heard and added "Car accident" as the cause of death below. So he waited 40 seconds...

When the 40 seconds had past and Light was just about to turn around having confirmed his theory, a truck swang off the street and hit the man head-on. Naturally, the man had died. Light couldn't believe what had just happened.

Later, at home, while he was still thinking about the power he had with this new book and he could use it for the sake of the good people, a strange creature suddenly showed on his bed. The masculine human-like being (or well... actually not being... I'm going to explain in a minute!) introduced himself as "Ryuk" and he said to be the actual owner of the death note. Light was shocked in the first place, but quickly he regained his cool mind and listened carefully to the explanations of Ryuk.

Ryuk stated to be a "shinigami", a god of death (typical for the japanese folklore). He explained that there exists something besides of heaven and hell where the shinigamis live. And every shinigami has its own death note. With them, they cause the death of the humans, adding the initially remaining lifetime of the human to their own. Sometimes a shinigami lets his death note fall accidentally into the human world. Then, he or she has to come down fast to get his o her death note back before a human finds it. Because at the moment any human touches the death note, it begins to be his own possession. And then the shinigami has to stay on Earth together with the human until he dies to take his death note home again. The shinigami on Earth can only be seen by people who have touched his respective death note.

 The main characters (from left to right): L, Light Yagami and Ryuk.

Light began to think that it was a kind of a divine destiny that he had found the death note. From that point, Light set as his objective to create a new world by exterminating step by step all the bad people leaving only the good ones. But early, he started to get crazy and to think of himself as a kind of god of a new world. Still, he was very intelligent. And quickly, he got an enemy. When Light continued killing more people with his new almost invincible weapon, the police got aware of the mysterious murders and asked L (yep, his code name, just an L; this has style, don't you think?) for help, a very stange guy in the same age as Light who was working in the shadows for the extremely hard cases for the police. A fight between the two geniuses had begun, when L was trying to find out who was the hiding murderer and Light was trying to plan all his murders in perfection to not get caught by L.

The best about this anime is to follow the mind battles between Light and L and the tragic incidents which accompany their almost divine fight. This anime gets you stuck onto the screen, you just want to know always what's going to happen next and you're deeply fascinated by the incredible deductions and gambits Light and L do during the story.

With a protagonist who is actually the "bad guy", the anime also makes us think about some very big questions: Is it justified to take someone's life if that person did something very bad? Where are the limits between the ones who deserve to die and the ones who don't? Who should set these limits? Is it correct to decide about the destiny of a person's life?

Ah, I forgot to mention. Ryuk is just a hilarious character. Really.

This one makes you think and as you surely know, I love that. So, if you're interested to have a little look, here you have the first episode:

 

Virtue's Last Reward

So, now it's time to move on and change the topic... To the sequel of 999 :)

I'm really sorry that I don't stop to talk about this, but if you actually play these games one day by yourself (I don't think you will, but who knows?), you would surely understand my euphorism.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward is the full name of the new game of Aksys, the creators of 999. They decided to make a sequel because of the huge amount of fans of the first game that wrote mails to them because they wanted them to make another great masterpiece like 999. An interesting fact that most of these fans weren't Japanese people. A big part of them were Americans and this kind of games (called "visual novel") with so much reading usually don't have many followers outside of Japan.

And well, they thought "That concept worked once, why shouldn't it go well twice?". Thanks to that, tomorrow, the 23th of November, the sequel will be released in Europe (at the moment only the English version). And within the next week I'll get my fingers onto it and I'll finally be able to experience another great story, I'm sure about that.

But what's the game about this time? Well, actually, it's pretty much the same concept.

We have 9 persons who have been kidnapped and transported to a mysterious building, some kind of warehouse. And it's another time our so much beloved Zero (the person in the coat with the gas mask) who's responsible for this mess.

The protagonist's name is Sigma, it's another time a student in the age of a young adult. He wakes up in a big elevator with another girl, her name's Phi (apparently, the guys of Aksys like the greek alphabet). After some little small talk, you know, the usual stuff: "Where the **** am I? Who are you? What happened?" and so on, they receive a little welcome message by an AI, an artificial intelligence, which names itself "Zero III". And this AI comes along in the form of a digital rabbit in some screens placed in the room. Yep, a rabbit. These Japanese people... crazy ones, aren't they?

Somehow the two manage to get out of the room and meet up with, yeah you guessed it, 5 more persons. HAH! I got you! Well... at least if you made the effort to count the people! 2 + 5 = 7 And they should be nine... Well, after more small talk and presenting each person to the others, Sigma finds out that everyone came of elevators and everyone wears these strange bracelets (similar to the ones in 999, but not the same!!!). But, there are two of them who came out off the same elevator just like Sigma and Phi and the rest were trapped in individual rooms...

Then, suddenly another door opens and a VERY strangely dressed guy arrives (I mean, he wears an overall armour... he just seems to be a robot!) carrying a girl in his arms... The girl... well, let's say we know her already. She's Clover, the pink-haired girl of 999. And finally, Zero III starts to speak and begins with his explanations of the horrible game they're going to play: The Nonary Game Ambidex Edition!

Our "lucky" participants (Sigma is the guy in the blue overall and Phi the girl on his left) and the representant of the gamemaster Zero III, the rabbit. Yeah, I know, Clover and Alice, the girls on the right have an interesting fashion style... well, after all, it's still a Japanese game. It's another culture!

So, now the rules of the new Nonary Game Ambidex Edition: Each person has a bracelet with a specific colour (the meaning of which is a mystery if you haven't played the game) and a number. This number is their current score of "BP" (Bracelet Points) and everyone starts with 3.

During the game, they will go in pairs through several special doors. On these special doors, they will have to make an important decision. The two players will face a display with a frightening simple question: "Ally or betray?" Their decisions will affect their BP. This is explained very well by this chart:

Imagine you're Sigma and you want to go through a door with Phi. If you both choose "Ally" you both will receive 2 BP. If you both decide to "Betray" your points won't be changed. But, and here is the clue to the sadistic intention of this game, if one of you chooses "Betray" while the other one chooses "Ally", he will get 3 points for betraying, while the other one will lose 2 points!

This means that, if you play with a good strategy, you're actually able to eliminate your opponent. Because you need 9 BP to go through the final door with a "9" on it and escape from the warehouse. But, if your bracelet points reach 0, you will lose the game... and your life.

So, as you see, it's the same concept, but now the game is even more designed to make the players fight each other. This is just devilish. But this makes it even more interesting!

Well, I think now I've annoyed you enough with all these sick games! ^^" If you're actually interested, I leave you this video. It's very well done! It tells you the beginning of the game in the form of a short anime episode!

Talking about animes...

999 (after the end)

This post was actually meant to be the one about the sequel of 999, but I got so excited talking about my final experiences of 999 that I had to divide it into two different posts. I hope you can understand that, it's just that it would be way too large for only one post.

You remember 999? If not, just have a little look here: Click me baby one more time!

Well, now that your memories have been refreshed, let's talk about the promising sequel of 999: 101010... Okay, that was a lame one.

No, actually it's called "Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward" or it's Japanese title "Virtue's Last Reward: Good People Die", which are naturally better names. This makes you be curious, doesn't it?

First, I want to tell about how the whole 999 thing ended for me. Well, let's say that, I was very enthusiastic about the games at the beginning. Then I played more and more and I revealed the whole true story behind the mysterious kidnappings.

So, then I thought another time about my opinion of the game and it changed a lot: After that, I was extremly EXCITED and IMPRESSED and INSPIRATED and [muchmorepositiveadjectives]...

Just WOW. I mean, I can't explain everything to you because I would destory you the story in case you ever decide to play the game by yourself. And to be honest, even though you aren't really a fan of videogames, it's really worth it (and you don't need a console to play it, just like you don't need money to get music, if you know what I mean; I'm such a bad boy...).

But the story was so outstanding! When you come around the walls and lies and supositions and other obstacles and finally find out the moving truth behind this whole sick game it will... just touch you. You will learn to love or hate each character as if you had known them in reality and the first days and maybe even weeks you will remember many times those emotional moments you got through...

The music of the game is simple and not very varied, but it's perfect to create a good atmosphere. Just listen to some samples (watch out with the comments of the people, they may contain huge story spoilers!)

The soundtrack for the intro and the dramatic and moving moments (my earworm for about 3 weeks even after finishing the game...)

This one thrilled me until my bones... It's the music that sounds whenever a situation gets very dangerous, shocking... It just remembers me of the moment where you find a dead body and the situation gets into my mind another time... (better don't listen to that at night)

So, what makes this game so great is the way it catches you and introduces you into the story and it makes run thousands and thousands of thoughts through your mind. You feel like you are inside the events of the game and you look for any possible logical solution for the happenings while you just try to survive.

It creats perfectly the necessary atmosphere to make the story credible. Besides from the music, the images also transmit you very well the situation, the dialogues are natural and interesting and finally the descriptions of the situation are tremendously good. Just to give you an example: At one point (you can't avoid that during the story) you will find a dead body. The images of the game don't show at any time the dead body (and if it does, you don't see the "dramatic" zones). But the descriptions are so detailed... You will feel like you've just found a cadaver. So, this game isn't recommendable for someone with a weak mind, in the sense that that person cannot think about these situations without any kind of disturbance.

Something very specific of this game is that is has got 6 (well... actually 7) different endings. And only one ending is the "true" one, the good one. All the others endings lead you to another possibility because you made an incorrect choice. The game continously puts you in front of decisions. Some of the decisions (these can be the door you want to go through, what you answer to someone, etc.) are crucial for the incidents that will follow. So, to get a specific ending, you have to make the choices which correspond that ending.

In other words, you will have to try out several times (getting VERY subtle hints from the game during the story) making different decisions to get the best ending. You may think that you need a lot of pacience for that. And it's true. But the game sucks you into itself so much that you won't be satisfied until you finally understand the whole story and you see the true ending.

So, I can just say that this is definitely one of the greatest games I ever played and it's worth so much the time to invest in. Also, it was a good English practice for me since it's only available in English (besides of Japanese... I mean the real Japanese, not the weird accent that some students speak in our English class ;) ).

I can only fully recommend you to play this game and experience it by yourself!

Self-evaluation of my oral presentation

I hope you apologize that I couldn't upload the video in the normal way (I really don't know why), so I give you the link to the Youtube video where you can see my presentation:

Click me and you get what you want

As for the self-evaluation, let's check the different parts which are relevant for a good presentation:

Presentation (10%): I think I did a good job on this part. I used the prezi for the first time and I have to say it's a really nice tool even though I didn't make full use of it (it gives so many creative possibilities for presentations, next time maybe I'll try to do take advantage of that). My timing was perfect (virtually 6 minuts) and I think the prezi supported well my explanations. 

That would be 10 out of 10.

Body language & eye contact (10%): Generally, I think I was able to attract the attention of the audience and I really don't look TOO nervous on this video... But during the introduction, in my opinion, I was looking a bit too much at my paper and the screen (even though I wasn't actually reading...) and this made the first part to be a bit boring. 

I think it would 7,5 out of 10.

Structure (10%): It was really hard for me to divide my presentation so I would get a clear structure, as it was more like a speech (because of the philosophical topic). But I think it went out good for me, I did a fluid connection between each part of the presentation and in the end I was able to explain the different ideas to the audience in the correct order.

Only because of the effort I put into that it should be 10 out of 10!

Content (40%): Well, now that's a hard one. The topic was very personal and I think the information I transmitted to the audience wasn't fully known, but it wasn't totally new either, since everyone of us has already made some expierencec and learned some lessons which may coincide with the ones I exposed. So it's difficult to tell, my topic is a very specific one and there will be auditors who liked it a lot and other ones who didn't like it a bit. I looked up for the pictures I ended up putting into my prezi (the first one, an internet meme, was made by myself) and I wanted to add another good quote and I found some that I really liked, but they were too long to use them just as an eyecatcher or filler.

So, what it's going to be then? I think 35 out of 40 is fair.

Language (20%): I actually tried to keep the language quite simple yet varied. As it was a really loaded topic (stealing expressions here...) I thought if I use complicated sentences it would be even worse for the sleepy audience. I tried to repeat the key words like "change" so my listeners would remember them especially well without abuse them. So it was another aspect I took very seriously while preparing and I think it's worth a good mark. Just the "overcome an obstacle" thing, but now I won't forget this one, that's for sure ;)

So, 17,5 out of 20.

Pronunciation and intonation (10%): Well, I think my pronunciation was okay and I actually checked up some words like "philosophical" or "obstacle" but I didn't know I had problems with "immature"... You got me on that one! My intonation was quite good, too. Above all in the joke parts I tried to make us of the correct intonation to obtained the effect I hoped to get: my audience waking up and laughing :) (Humour is in fact such a complex mechanism! This reminds me that I should write a post about this, maybe...)

To be fair, I think a 7,5 out of 10 is fine.

Final self-evaluation: Let's do some maths first... 10+7,5+10+37,5+17,5+7,5 = 90

So 90% would be a 9 in a decimal mark system :)

So, now the question is, what can I improve? Well, I think I could be less afraid of doing a presentation about a personal topic (the reason why I took so long to decide and I needed the help of two very kind ladies ;) ). For the sake of my poor heart, I could be less nervous, too. Maybe you didn't notice, but I did! :O 

Also, I should try to avoid to make my presentation too heavy and use more tricks to keep the audience interested and entertained. Finally, I should check up every single word on a pronunciation dictionary!!!!!!!! Nah, I was just kidding. But I should be aware of the words I think I pronounce well, but I actually don't.

And to conclude this self-evaluation, if you're interested in it, here's the (more or less faithful) transcription of my presentation I prepared in form of notes as a support during my explanations (and the place where I could do experiments as for the humour parts and different kind of expressions):

What I learned from being an alien

Hello everybody! As you already know, I’m Christian and now I’m going to do my presentation. If at any point you don’t understand any word or I speak too quickly (because I know I often speak too quickly when I’m nervous and now I AM NERVOUS), please tell me or ask me about the words!

So, the title of my presentation is „To be an alien“.

About my topic

-So, this is what some of you may think right now. (meme)

-Obviously, I’m not really an alien (even though some you may believe that, but no, I’m not).

-I actually chose this title for my presentation as a little trick, it was just to attract your attention.

-So, why this title? I want to tell you about what I’ve learned of my experience to having come here.

-When you are a new student in a new country and you don’t know anyone, you don’t have any idea about the language (or even 2 languages!) the people talk, then you just feel a bit like an alien. This is just what happened to me about 4 years ago when I came here to Spain... sorry, to Catalonia.

-I’m going to tell you about my point of view of these changes and the opinion I obtained by my experiencies and the effects all this time had for me.

-So it’s kind of a philosophical topic and I think we all are philosophers sometimes. So if you have another opinion or you think I’m saying stupid things or even better you think I’m doing a great presentation and it has changed your life forever you just have to tell me.

Well, I’m sure in this class there are at least a few people that have been through a similar situation. It doesn’t have to be that you moved into another country, but it can also be that you changed school or you moved into another city.

Changes

-Changes are always difficult. I think, they’re very important in our life, because with changes we grow up and our life gets exciting.

-But we human and especially we teenagers are very lazy and lethargic. Most of us don’t want that our surroundings change too much, we always want that everything stays as good as it is.

-But in fact, life gets boring if nothing changes. And changes can also mean a challenge for you. In our life, we have to go through a lot of important changes.

-Many of them mark a step into another stage of life. This is related to the topic some of you talk about in your presentations. These can be the first day in school, the first time you’re in love with someone, when you start working, your marriage, the death (well, the death is a really drastic change in our life… because life ends with death).

-Our life is full of different changes which make us be who we are.

Accept changes

Why is it so difficult to accept changes? Well, usually we don’t want that things change because we don’t want to leave behind something and admit that it is never going to be like it was before.

-But if we only live in the past, when we’re lost or stuck in our memories, then we won’t be able to move on in the present. It’s important that we let the past be the past and don’t look back too much.

-I, for myself, made the mistake to stick myself onto my past in Germany. I thought that my life was terrible now that I had to leave my friends and my old life there… I was being too dramatic. I was 12 years old and I was so immature when I came here.

-It’s the usual effect, now you believe that you think in the right way about your life, that your opinion won’t change so easily and blablabla. And then, one year later or even just some months later you think „Oh my god, how I could be so stupid“!

-But my big mistake was to shut myself almost completely off the outside world. This made me turn narrow-minded and blind for all kind of positive things.

-But then I had the immense luck to meet some really amazing people who helped me to open my eyes so I could finally live my life and be happy another time. Ever since they’ve been my best friends. It’s now when you had to say „Oooooooooooh, how sweet!“

Conclusion

So, to conclude my presentation: Today I only try to make my own way no matter what people say and just smile to the future that waits for me.

-A lot of people use this well-known sentence: Carpe Diem (Enjoy your day!)

- I think if we stop living in our past and believe in ourselves that we’re able to do anything we want, we really start to enjoy all our days.

-Sometimes life’s difficult and we have to get over some obstacles to get what we want. When this happens we shouldn’t start to feel sorry for ourselves! We should just do what we have to do and keep going.

- So, this was my presentation… This is what I learned during these 4 years I’ve been here now… Well, it’s actually just a little part of it. I could talk hours and hours about it, but I don’t want to bore you too much… I hope you enjoyed my presentation and maybe some of you feel identified with something I talked about. Thank you for listening!

Fairy tale

Here is the written version of the fairy tale (authors: Arià Canadell, Marc Borràs and Christian Koch).

Effort's power

Once upon a time there was a very poor young boy who lived in a quarter in the center of New York. He had lost his father some years ago in a car accident and since then his mother fell in a deep depression. She couldn't find any good job and so both of them tried to earn money as they could. The little boy went out on the streets every day after school to ask for money to the people who were walking there.

New York is a city with thousands and thousands of faces but there was one that he saw every single day. The young boy had no problems to talk to anyone, but that man was an exception. He just didn't dare to ask him. It wasn't like he was afraid. He only... admired him too much.

Then, one afternoon like all the other ones the man approached. While he was making one step after another, the heart of the little boy beated so fast that he felt that it would jump out of his chest. Eventually, the man stood in front of him. He was a tall middle-aged man. He started to speak: "I've been observing you for a long time. And you know it, you aren't stupid. I know your life is very hard and you have to do your best because you and your mother can survive. I'm afraid, I'm little help to you because I'm very poor too. Today, I haven't earned a single dollar yet." To the man's surprise, the young boy said nothing. He just put his hand in his pocket and took out some coins. "I'm sorry... that's all I have". The young boy gave him the little money he had received that day. After he had realized the boy's kind offer, the man refused and said: "Well, it's not true what I said. It's not that I can't give you anything. Forgive me for lying, but I had to know if you were really worth it." Suddenly, he shouted: "Watch out, behind you!"

The boy turned around and saw nothing but a simple wall. As he tried to respond, the man had already disappeared... "What a strange man..."

The next morning he woke up by the words of a very familiar voice. First, he didn't notice. It was like the most natural thing for him. But when he started to be wide awake and his eyes analized the situation, the tears began to flow like rivers from his eyes. His father didn't know what had happened and he just hugged his son.

If you work hard for you objectives and have a pure heart, the life will award you, like our young boy.

Podcast: fairy tale

I'm really sorry for the poor quality :( I hope your ears won't hurt too much!

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1wrRKgguwDD

Thirteen & Adrian Mole: the adolescence

The book The secret diary of Adrian Mole and the film Thirteen both talk about the different (negative) possibilities of lifes of teenagers. The main topics are the problems with the own family at home (Tracy and her separated mother and the difficult situation at home because of her mother's job and her boyfriend; Adrian and his always discussing and irresponsinble parents), the school life and the obstacles it brings along (the "cool girls" in Tracy's case and the bully Barry Kent and Pandora in Adrian's case).

The film was quite shocking for me. I have to say that I really don't like teenage films. And even less the ones which try to show the worst sides of teenage life. They depress me a bit because when I watch a movie, I start to feel with the characters. And then, when I have to see scenes like a girl who's changing from her old life with her friends and without any major problems (except the ones with her own family which may have been another reason for her drastic changes) to a life with drugs, stealing, cutting... I mean, it's true that we all have to make our own experiencies and when we arrive at a certain age we all start to be more rebellious or we have to go through a difficult stage because we're confused. But this is really a striking example...

Then, on the other side, there the book which, in my opinion, shows the more pathetic part of being an adolescent. Adrian is not the smartest guy (well, the poor boy has got a difficult situation at home, too...) and his thoughts and conclusions... Well, reading the book I felt embarassed for Adrian. And I really don't like this feeling, to be honest. I guess, I didn't enjoy too much this topic, didn't I?

The adolescence is such an important step, but it can also be such an ugly time... I think that what we learn adolescence can affect us for the rest of our life (well, I'm still too young and still too... adoslencent to confirm it). When we start to be mature, to open our mind for different points of view, when we begin to realize all the things that happen in the world and we start to find the essential part of it: the things we really want and our dreams and objectives. And everyone has his own ones. There are people who think that love is the most important and they're always worried to find the special one to spend their life with. Others may believe that the work is the most important and they concentrate on school and later on their jobs. There are also people who dream of being a big star, they want to get to the top with their special talent: a sport, acting, singing... 

I think that exactly that is what's so interesting about knowing different people. In our life we meet one person after another, but there aren't two equal to each other. We all have different dreams and opinions and points of view. And this sometimes is the source of conflicts between people. But this is the fault of the intolerant persons. Unfortunately, there are many individuals who just don't want to accept the thoughts of the others. We can't argue that we can't always agree with everyone, that's not the point. But even if we don't agree what the others say, we could just accept and respect their opinions. It's kind of utopic to think about a world where everyone understands each other (this is one of the big themes in Naruto, too... You remember my post about that manga last year?), but to give up is never a solution. Maybe one day it will come true. We just have to keep trying and teach the next generations to do a we do. We don't have to make them think like us! We just have to show them the right direction and let them walk on their own path. 

Well, it seems I've swung off a bit of the initial topic. I hope you enjoyed reading it even though. It's just... they weren't really my favourite book and film and without these philosophical parts it wouldn't have been my own post ;)

Almost two months later...

Maybe you've already figured out what I want to talk about. If you haven't, just have a look at a calendar ;)

It's been almost two months since we started the new school year. And it's completely different of all the past years. It's such a big change from ESO to Batxillerat. And you quickly notice. Somehow it's pleasing because I feel the challenge comparing with last year. And I feel like everything's more serious, which is not so bad. If we talk about the people, the environment in Batxillerat classes is more relaxed and you just concentrate on your work. But thanks God that doesn't mean we are all working like robots and don't have a good time.

In a strange way I like to do the work. I mean, I'm still a typical teenager and these would never say the like to go to school. But with your friends in the class, the knowledge that you're treated more like a young adult and no more like a child and such nice teachers as we have in our school (well, there are always exceptions), I can't really complain. The new timetable is an advantage, too. I arrive at home on 3 o'clock, I have something for lunch, I do my homework and then, there's still time! And if we consider the amount of homework we have this year it's a vital help!

Everything's seems to be more useful. I've got a feeling that now I'm working on the base of my future. It frightens a bit to know that. You're conscious that everything you do counts. Some people may think that my problems are luxury. But I'm determined to do my best and do the best I can. Because I know that sometimes, even though my mark is good, I could have done it better. I'll try to focus on my objectives and make my way! Right now, I still haven't given a shape to my objectives. I only know that I work on a good future with a good job where I can contribute in some way to the humanity and give a good life to my family and raise well my children and teach them what they have to know.

I think if you really work for what you want and you never give up, everything will be fine for you!