Old magic.

Can you picture yourself on a rainy day, looking through the window with a cup of coffee on your hands? Nice, isn’t it? What would you be lacking to make it even more perfect? Personally, I could not imagine myself in that situation, without music.

Music is always there when you need it. It can cheer you up when you are sad or even the other way around. It sets us in a mood that goes accordingly to the rhythm, lyrics and or even the voice of the singer which we are listening to. Music is perfect. You can take it with you on your mp3, cell-phone or even playing repeatedly on your mind. 

But what about those times in which you could not listen to music anywhere you went to? 

My favorite technological invention is the cassette. I know you might think I‘m crazy or that there is nothing new about a cassette, but I have always been fascinated about them.

Cassettes are magical. When I was younger I always wondered how did they work or from where did the music come from, and you cannot tell me you never played with your pens and a cassette.

Whether it is just for you to listen to some of your old favorite music or to have fun as if you were a kid, the invention of the cassettes came to change people’s lives forever and I could not imagine the world without them.

What are your thoughts on cassettes? Were they and important invention in people's lifestyle?  

Art with cassettes.

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More art.

As if you were there

Computers, laptops, blackberries are nothing without the Internet. They are just devices without much functionality, I mean they are useful to do some tasks faster, but if you do not have Internet is pointless.

The Internet facilitates a better and faster communication among people, especially when the distance is significant. You might think that with telephone is enough, you can call someone and that it is, but the thing is that thanks to the Internet you can get another kind of information, for instance you can Skype someone and you will see his/her reactions, or if you need a paper, it can be easily scan; while before the invention of the Internet you had to call someone and then fax something, using different gadgets.

  

Another feature is that through the Internet we can achieve a lot of news from all over the globe, so it is not necessary to be in the exact place where a new is happening. A piece of new when is share, facilitate activities such as: journalism, but also those regarding to business. For instance, it is not necessary going to the trade center and makes some transactions; it is enough with your Internet connection.

Honestly, I think is the best invention ever! you have to be kidding me if you said that you have never use the Internet, specially to visit facebook.

Capture a moment, capture a life

Our memory is like a huge box where you can store all the moments that you want. However, it is so fragile that in a blink of an eye, you can forget things that you want to remember for the rest of your life. Now, you can keep those memories in a piece of paper, in your laptop, and you can bring them wherever you want. How? with photographs.

Nowadays, most of people have a camera with them in their cellphones, their laptops, digital cameras, etc. People can take a camera, snap, and record every instant that they want. It is like a diary in which you can appreciate in detail things that you can’t in a specific second. Photographs can change our minds, can change the way how we see the world. They are a testament to the history of life of all human beings, of nations, of significant global situations, and also, a testament to the most negative of humanity.

Pictures can transmit different emotions that are expressed forever in paper or digital media and people can interpret them in different ways. It’s like a travel to the past, and it’s free! You can even feel the same way you felt when the photo was taken. It’s a pure moment that no one can take it away from you, because it’s there in that piece of paper. However, technology has made this "purity" don’t exist anymore. Programs like Photoshop have made that reality can be transformed so that all we see is not real. You can look like a fat woman even if you are the skinniest person in the whole world or vice versa.

In addition, in this time social networks have spread very fast, and the photographs that you show there reflects people’s identity. Nevertheless, there are a minority that change its identity in order to be someone else, or just to make fool of others.

In conclusion, pictures can “say” so much things when you look at them. You can interpret them in different ways. For that reason, my question is: do you think that pictures can reflect what we feel in a specific moment? or now nothing is real?

Here is the first picture ever taken by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.

Don't get wet!

There are some objects that you can easily find in every 21^st Century house: a TV, refrigerator, blender, computer, laptop, etc; these items make our life easier and that’s technology for me; invents that were created to help us and to save time to enjoy doing something else, and don’t waste it doing the housework.

One of the tasks you surely have to do when you live by your own (that I particularly hate) is wash your clothes; even when you try to be careful, they will get dirty anyway. The bright side is that nowadays we don't need to go to the nearer river and spend the whole afternoon squeezing your shirts and pants because we have the washing machines! Only by pressing some buttons your grimy clothe will be clean again in just a couple of minutes, that’s the magic of this great invent that revolutionized all the homes in the world. By 1950 having one of these machines was a signal of status; fortunately, having one at home is not a big deal in 2012. Could you imagine yourself washing your clothe in the bathtub everyday… that’s scary and exhausting!

These electric machines were created in order to help the american housewives; luckily they became famous and at the present time, everybody uses them (not only women, of course) and you can also buy them in different models and prizes, which are not really high, for that reason you can find a washing machine in most of the Chilean homes.

All the technological devices were created to serve us, not to replace us, that is why even when they help us with some undesired tasks, we have to do something in return; in this case, hanging up the clothes (such annoying thing!). Is there any duty you hate doing? Can you rely on technologies to help you with this task?

*** Washing machines are so useful that you can even create a piece of music with them!

A new member at home

Every time we have a family meeting, my parents talk about how wonderful the day was when they watched television for the first time; it was in the 60’s. We live in a small town, so in that time just one person could afford to buy one. He was the owner of an electronic shop and every afternoon most of the people of our town gathered outside the shop to watch television. Those blurry black and white pictures were all the family and neighbors needed to share to have a good time together. Nowadays, television has evolved since its inception in the early part of the twentieth century; from three or four channels, now we have thousands of channels of amazing full color high-definition picture with life-like depth and realism, and it’s almost impossible to find a house that doesn’t have a television.

Today, television plays a significant role in people’s everyday lives; it has been the most effective means of communication in our world throughout the years. People´s life completely changed when television appeared, the endless amount of information that enters into our minds everyday is now shaping our globalized culture. We can watch movies, sports, any kind of entertaining show, news around the world, listen to music, learn about science, history, technology, cooking, medicine, different cultures, and know what is new, all this is available at our fingertips and for many people television also works as a good company when they are alone.

Television has played an important role in entertain and inform our lives, but we can’t try hide the other side of the coin, don’t you think that we have been told for many years,  what to buy, say, dress, drink, eat, think and look like throughout publicity in television, which uses beautiful people to seduce us and tell  us that that’s the product that we should buy to look like them. It has created stereotypes and shape the roles of men and women in society, showing men as a seducer and women as an object of beauty. Unconsciously, we have been induce to consume and to try to reach what others have and how they look like. Don't you think that we have been giving TV too great an influence in our lives?

Light the Night

It is forgotten that the night, in his nature, is complete darkness; but since electricity was found in the 18th century, the vision of the it was understood as a mere gold to conquer.

The electricity, as a phenomenon, has always been a part of nature; a delight for those who thousand and thousand years BC observed these unknown manifestations of the earth. Practices that the cavemen could not explain, but that brought a lot of benefits to the human race; fire was a consequence of these exhibitions and the first habitats of the earth took advantage of it, bringin light into the night.

Long before the electricity was used as we do it today, ancient civilizations (Egyptian, Greek and Roman) had the oportunity to work with it, especially in Medicine, using an animal called "Electric Fish". Hedaches were treated directly with this animal, that tried to cure people's illnesses.

Further in time, Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century conducted a lot of experiments related to electricity, the most importan of all was the one in which he attached a metal key to a kite; he realized that some sparks were transmited through the thread to his hand.

Nowadays, we can say that electricity is one of the most important nature's invention of all, not ours, but its. We also can say that as our lives are attached so deeply to electronic devices, we cannot conceive them without such important gift. Electricity is not only a scientific curiosity anymore but also an essential tool for our daily life.

Here is a video from Discovery Channel that talks about leaving lights on or off. Enjoy!

Let there be light

If we start thinking about the most important technologies that the world had seen through the existence of the human kind, the one that is going to be presented in this text is considered a milestone in our history.

The human being has always tried to improve his life, and he has always wanted to make his existence more comfortable. The first question that comes to my mind is: Can you imagine reading or studying at night with just a little flame in the middle of your bedroom? The answer to this question at first glance would be, yes, maybe because it has something cliché.. but not for all the nights of the rest of your lives.

Since Thomas Edison had the awesome idea to invent this particular device, the world started to witness how the light was artificially created. Our lives were changed when the light bulb started to illuminate the most remote places in the world, distant corners that had never been illuminated before, now enjoy this eternal sparkle. 

His invention made our lives hospitable to a wide range of human activities. The benefits that this change produced were innumerable. First, it gave the opportunity to lot of countries (Nordic countries that just receive 6 month of sunlight) to perceive light in the same way we, people from the west, did. Second, with this invention lots of other inventions started to see the light; and of course, it brought lots of bad things too,  that now societies are more aware of it, for example, climate change, light pollution, etc.

Can you imagine how the world would be now, if Thomas Edison had invented another source of the artificial light? 

My House Kick Me Out!!!

        Have you ever heard about smart homes? Haven't you? Well, Imagine a house in which anything you want and you need can be found, and even more important, that can be perform by itself, YES! It can be done by your house. Since technology has improved our way our life making it easier and helpful. Engineers and building enterprises have been using all this advances to create amazing buildings which are able to deal with the decisions and the requirements of the staff on it.   

TV and films have developed the idea of and smart home in which if you want a light on, just clap your hands or say “lights”; you move on to the kitchen and say “juice” or “water” and immediately a glass with you order into it is delivered; a house with a so high and sophisticated security system that allows to make its own decisions, trough algorithms based on your profile. These kinds of dwellings are no longer part of a film, and no longer owned just by billionaires; executives, lawyers and most of the upper-medium-class can buy this new trendy houses now at days; in addition, for the medium-class can buy and install into their houses some devices and features based on this dwellings. 

But, how would you feel living in a house with its own conscience?

Imagine being raised in a smart home, surrounded by devices that perform the things for you, what about electricity goes off, or a virus corrupt the system; put you into an environment like your grandpas had. Can you realize how much are we being dependent on technology? Do you like this? What about someday your smart home denies you as its resident, or instead of protects you, it tries to kill you. Food for thoughts, don’t you agree?

   

     For further info about how a smart home is, check this out:

                                           

God save internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKvdnPqW-p8

Currently, we use internet for multiple and varied purposes: we can know the latest pieces of new worldwide, communicate with other, often do our work at home, among other typical uses that we make of it. Moreover, it may help us to sort out some time-consuming activities such as paying the bills and going to the supermarket and give us more hours a day to stay with our family. In this sense, we may say that we are really lucky in our days we have the opportunity to do all of them virtually.

At the beginning, internet gained popularity due to its no-limits. It gave the user the freedom to do whatever they want. Specifically, they could keep in contact with people living in their country and outside, which is really helpful when we are working with other people in an academic or professional context. Additionally, internet surfers have access to national and international media, which allows them to be informed all the time. Also it was possible to download music and books. And the most positive of it is that all those facilities have no cost-- apart from the one we have to pay monthly for the service.

On the other hand, it is important  to state that since internet started to be a more massive resource, our society began to change: people quickly discovered that the new technology could bring them lots of benefits. Not only they had the chance of having access to unimaginable amounts of information but also it offered an alternative for those who were really busy and never had time to anything.Thanks to internet they were able to fulfil with all their obligations--month-to-month payments and obligations-- in just few minutes, which gave them the opportunity to spend more time with their friends, partners, and family in general.

As you can see, internet is one of the greatest inventions in the history since it simultaneously provide with all the information and services that make our lives easier; also it allows us to be active members of our inter-connected world. What else can we ask?

Sharing For A Living

Some years ago, a friend of mine told me to sign into Facebook. At that time, the only place where I would write my ideas, feelings, and what was going on my life, was my diary. She was so persistent that I decided to find out what was all about Facebook. I didn't find anything interesting in it, so I didn't do as my friend told me to. I remember she was very disappointed that I didn't create an account; she even told me that I would never going to be popular.

Now, after 5 years or more, I have fallen into the social network's world, and even though they are a great tool to communicate with people in a cheaper way, I still do not understand how people become so addicted to it. Although social networks are really entertaining and helpful to comunicate, I think it is dangerous for our own life. 

Being addicted to Facebook or Twitter, the two most used social networks nowadays, can effect your academic performance. Updating your Facebook status or scrolling down on Twitter every 5 seconds, can really affect your concentration on more important issues, like our studies, and our English homework. People spend more time on the internet and on these social networks than they could really imagine.

Let's picture this:

You wake up at 06.00, and check your e.mail, maybe the news, and of course, Facebook. Even if there is no one online at 6.00 in the morning, you stare at the chat, and check it every time you can. Then, you go to work, university or school; you check Facebook on the phone, and you keep doing that every hour of the day. 

Social Network Addiction is a serious problem, and it can also affect the way you perceive reality. Being in a virtual world almost the entire day, can really make you feel that you are still in the virtual world; therefore, you don't even know in what reality you are in. Your self-steem also depends on what status or comment do you read, what photo you were tagged in...

It is not possible that our lives depend on Facebook's updates. 

So I wonder: what can we do, then, to realize that we can become addicts before it gets worse? 

The television and its constantly evolution.

The evolution of this device has been huge. During many years, it has been present in most of our homes. Before it was something that only wealth people could get, but now it is very common see it in almost every, and why don't say in every, house around the world. I'm talking about the television.

The television has suffered a lot of changes through the years. In first ones, the images were in black & white, and they were giants, but now we can find not only a device to watch programs, news, and entertainment TV shows, but also almost a computer. The last technology about television is amazing. You can watch movies online, you can enter and go through the internet at the same time you are watching your favorite show.

Besides that the size and the image’s color have changed, the technology has gone even beyond that we can imagine. We all know that years ago we can only watch one or two TV shows, and it was almost impossible to get informed about international news. Nowadays, you can watch and be informed about every event around the world, and even more important, in the same minute that is happening.

But thinking about the great benefits and good consequences that television has brought to our lives, it has another side were many people are against about the main function of this device has, and that is about the information that you can obtain from television and the time that all of us spent in front of television. Many people can tell and think that the children who watch so much television are influence by the content of different programs, and that they spent more time watching TV than playing outside.

We can agree or disagree with that opinion, but I think the most important is to know and be clear what the best is for you and your family and what is not. But one thing is clear and we can’t deny it, television is part of our lives; we are evolving at the same time; television is adapting us every minute during the years.

Walking with rhythm..!!

According to the dictionary, technology is a term meaning “a set of theories and techniques to the practical use of scientific knowledge in order to solve a problem, achieve a goal or perform a function.” However, this definition is not enough to describe the term and the amount of possibilities that technology brings to our lives in these days. Thanks to technologic devices, we can not only facilitate our life but also make it more comfortable, funnier and even we can have the chance to walk through our life with rhythm! That is the reason why in this first entry I decided to bring to the scene a device that establishes a perfect example of how technology has made our lives simpler and, at the same time, helped us to do something that it is not a necessity at all; as it is the pleasure of doing our routines with the music we love sounding in our ears. The device that allows us to do this is known as MP3 Player (plus earphones, of course).

The MP3 Player is one of the latest technologies created to provide the listener the possibility to listen to music in a personal manner without stop doing his/her routines. From the classical Personal Stereo passing through the beautiful design of the Discman and the cell phone itself to the ultimate MP3 Player, the utility that these devices provide has become a “must” among teenagers, scholars and even executives. May be, it is because we can play our favorite music on it after a tiring, long workday in the office or maybe it is just because we want to listen to that special song, band or radio that makes us feel better. I really fell in love with my MP3 Player, and I don´t want to go out without it, indeed, it is one of the things I check before leaving my house every morning. What about you? is the MP3 Player one of the things you check before leaving?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LofaRhbMZtc&feature=related

A Complete New World

A Complete New World

Many technologies have changed the way we live today. For instance, before the microwave, people had to spend lots of time trying to cook something; in the case of the TV, children relied on action figures and playgrounds to have some fun; and completing the homework would take hours and hours before the invention of the Internet. This amazing technology has been out there for some decades, changing our lives completely.

The Internet is really simple to use. All you need is a computer and Internet connection. From there you can browse almost anything: from recipes to entire books, from a song to an entire CD album, from an episode of a TV show to an entire season, and so on.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, one of the things you can do with the Internet is downloading information that you can use to complete your homework or to add some data to an essay. However, you have to be careful with the sources you rely on. For instance, it’s good to search for information in Wikipedia regarding entertainment topics (music, TV shows, etc.), but for academic purposes, it’s better to do a search on Google Scholar, or websites akin to that one. Also, you can upload whatever you want. If you recorded your friend doing something funny, you just go to YouTube and upload the video; you can say how much you hate or love people on Facebook; and you talk to random people using chat rooms.

It only took a couple of decades to the Internet to become a reliable source of both entertainment and information. Its easy interface and the download and upload options are incredibly powerful. It sounds quite good, right? But, as many things, it has a B-side, maybe the following video about piracy will help you to think of something.

A technological disease

A technological disease.

I remember my father having a huge mobile phone with no great applications at all, some years ago. At that time, that device was as technologic as expensive. However, thing have happened to change for cell phones have become a global need. There is a low percentage of people who assume they can live without one.

Nowadays, cell phones are sold everywhere. Yet, this is not only about where you can find them, it also has to do with the possibilities to buy them. Stores offer a series of “facilities” in which you can pay monthly in order to decrease the amount of money that you will spend on the electronic device (this basically means going into debt).

But, why is it that having a mobile phone has become a need? This new marvelous devices have come to break the brick-phone down. Old cell phones had a weight problem, they ran out of battery very fast, they were made for making and receiving calls; not a great wonder whatsoever. On the other hand, the new ones are small gadgets with a lot of apps, almost a little computer that you can carry on the palm of your hands.

When it is all said, the decision is personal: is going into debt worthy? Are you capable to live without your mobile phone?

brick-phone.

mobile phone addicted.

The magic of modern communication

Nowadays, within last generations, there are few people that do not know how to use a computer to write and read a document, see the news,  play computer games or to communicate through e-mails, Facebook or msn. Kids, adolescents and adults  use the computer for different purposes. Who have not seen a Little kid watching cartoons in YouTube?

Most of the young people and adults know how to look for information through web browsers and they also use Facebook and msn to communicate with their contacts.

Computers are present in homes, companies and institutions of all kinds, it is part of our daily life, wherever we. Such is its importance and presence that it has become a need to most people, especially among young ones, students and people who work in offices in general.

¿How internet has changed our life? - internet is nowadays almost a need related to quick access to information and communication with others, which in front of a computer with internet access, can be satisfied almost immediately .it is great to be able of remove any doubt related to a subject in which a don’t have any knowledge about it at one moment and in the next five minutes stop being ignorant about this subject, thanks to a simple search in Google. There are even new words, for example: googling, which is the word included in our modern lexicon to describe the action of looking for something in Google. I can write any word of what i need o i want to know  and after a “magic” enter i get a wide list of pages with information related to that only word that initiated the search. It’s simply amagazing.

If i want to get in touch with somebody, through an e-mail i can inform her/him what i want, being this a more formal mean that can be used in work or study areas .In higher education most of the information, whether documents for the class, supporting documents, e-mails from teachers, grades, messages through internet and even the registration process is through this mean. What benefits brings the internet? : A fast communication, it saves time and money on transport, which allows giving that time in other activities.

In terms of social life internet lets to have many contacts available in msn, Facebook and other applications. We can interact, chat, talk and even see our friends or to know other people who may become friends or not. Most of young people and also adults are always in touch with their friends or family, which may be geographically close or far, in any city of this country or in some other continent. The romantic letter and telegram are part of the past. Is somebody who keeps using them? Maybe, but there is no doubt that the modern ways to communicate nowadays have simply “magic” (or a magic style)

A couple years ago we didn’t see the internet as a part of our normal life.

What new needs will appear with the development of new technologies?

 

Without it we are nothing.

   “A surface capable of reflecting sufficient undiffused light to form an image of an object placed in front of it”.This is a traditional definition of what we all may know about mirrors, but have you ever thought beyond  the real importance this object represent in our lives? The mirror is one of those inventions that has ingrained in most of societies around the globe.

 This invaluable object, at the beginning, was replaced by water, in which our ancestors reflected their faces and bodies in order to see themselves;because the idea of trying to appreciate our own appearance begun thousands of years ago. This is surprisingly early, but true. Unfortunately, we don’t pay attention to how useful a mirror can be,nevertheless there are some reasons why do we need it and use it.

Nowadays, every person tries to reflect through her or his body a stylish and sophisticated appearance when looking a mirror, and then showing it to the world. In this case, vanity is the main reason why we like it and need it all the time.Besides, to be in front of a mirror, observing the way we are is a superficial aspect no one can reject about, but it is an issue we are all involved in. Maybe, prejudges make us feel we need to be a beautiful or handsome person to fit in society. Other people, even the closest friends or relatives we have can describe us very well, although there is only a piece of work that does this job extraordinarily: The Mirror!

Definitely, without looking ourselves it would be impossible to recognize us. What else than a mirror could describe perfect and exactly what we are, physically, to the rest of the world? Nothing else but an incredible mirror we look at more than once per day. All of us want to be acknowledged but, how can we do it if a mirror would not tell us who we really are?

 

 

 

Limitless world.

Can you imagine to have the power to create whatever you want? would you like to make whatever is going on in your mind real? well, the answers of these questions are closer than you think. No, it's not money. Just pick a up your bag and you will find the object that it's always with you.

Pens are tools that make our life easier in every aspect. We can describe our secret thoughts in a journal, draw or sketch figures, persons, landscapes. Everything you want in a little piece of plastic.

I compare a pen to a magic wand, because personaly I think, with a pen I can go wherever my imagination wants to take me, that's why I always carry a pen with me. Also, you have lots of sizes and colors to choose! therefore you have lots of  oportunities to reflect in an empty sheet of paper a whole new world.

This amazing tool has been part of artists, painters, poets, writers, and of course, teachers. They are our closer friend in our everyday work, so let's try to look further an try to find new usages! A blue pen it's not only to take notes during classes, as in the video I attached below, the drawer just with a nowadays pen could make an almost perfect portrait. What about us? Let's start writing more and encouraging our students to use this object always, because there will always be an special conection between our inside-self and a pen. It's  natural and way easier to express your feelings by writing on a piece of paper than being autocorrected by a computer or getting distracted by a facebook message while you are expressing yourself.

Next time you want to write a true-hearted letter or response I challenge you to use a pen instead of a computer,

Would you give it a try?

A clear example.