SMARTPHONE GAMES

Everyone has heard about Candy Crush, Temple Run, and nowadays Flappy Bird. They are as famous as they are because people of all ages are constantly playing. Do they really deserve all the hype? I don't think so!

The other day I was playing a new game that it's called 2048. It consists of making number combinations to reach until 2048. It sounds boring but when you start playing you get addicted because you want to achieve the goal. You want to win. So I did, after a few lost games I won. And guess what? The game didn't finish! When you reach the main goal they say that now you have to reach to 4096. I've never gone that far but I'm sure that this goes on and on...

What I want to point out is that we are addicted to a kind of games that don't have an end, so we're NEVER going to win. Then why we play games that are going to make us feel very frustrated? 

A clear example is Flappy Bird, I'm not making out anything saying that the prupose of this game is make you loose. It became popular very fast because people couldn't even reach to the first coin, so they told to their friends to play it and their friends to other friends... At the end Apple had to remove the game because people get very mad, some even throw their phones against the wall! 

In conclusion, we love to play those games although we know that we're not going to win!

Here's a video of teens playing Flappy Bird:

THE SELFIE MOVEMENT

Have you ever taken a selfie? Of course you did!

I named this entry The Selfie Movement because it is a movement. We all love to take a selfie when we're at an unusual place, or we just had our hair cut, basically, we usually take selfies when we are doing something that we're proud, or just different that what we would do in a regular day. But that's not the movement. Now there're people taking more than ten selfies per day. And in my opinion I'm not sure if this is right, or even unhealthy. I'll get to this point later because I had found out  how selfies became popular.

The first selfies (taken by phones) were when in Japan, they made  a mobile with a small mirror next to the camera, in order to see you when you were taking the photo. This went on until front cameras appeared, next to Instagram (an app where you can post square photos and add filters). People say that the first person to post a selfie was in 2011, when an asian lady post a photo of herself showing a jumper that she just bought. Since then lots of people joined the Selfie Movement, and the hashtag #selfie has been used more than 80 million times. 

A curious fact is that the word Selfie was the Oxford's English Word of the year in 2013.

That year the Papa of Rome and the President Obama took a selfie (separately!), and this year in the Oscars Ceremony when Ellen took a selfie with a bunch of important people. Then she posted the picture in twitter and that tweet has been the most retweeted tweet ever!

Obama posing for the selfie
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Ellen's selfie
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Since then a lot of people has been taking selfies, but it got into a point where I think that it's too much. Taking a lot of selfies everyday it's not normal for me. It shows how people are obsessed about themselves, about looking good, or well, you don't have to look good at all because then you can edit photos to be more "perfect". 

More recently, a DJ made a song called #Selfie, and I think (or hope) that the song prupouse is to criticize the selfie addicts.

OUR TRIP TO LONDON

Weeks ago, some of the students of batxillerat went to London, and we had a really great time! It was a very beautiful experience share all those moments with people you enjoy being with. So why I should keep it to myself?

On the first day I can't remember if we were nervous or not. I don't think so because we were all very excited and surrounded with hapiness. We knew that we wanted to make the most of that trip as possible. And we did. It all went perfect. When we were waiting our plane we decided to sit in a circle and play games, the time flied. We were very tired because we woke up very early but it didn't stopped us to face the rest of the day and enjoy London.

During those days we saw the most important things of London, like the Big Ben, the London Eye, the National History Museum, the Tate Museum and all the markets, etc. And we also went on a pub to eat very typical meals from England. We deserved the golden tourist medal (if it exists). We also enjoy our free time to go shopping on our own. It was a little scary but we had a great time. And for sure we practised English! In our free time we went to Starbucks and we found a nice lady who answered some of our quiz of London.

People there are quite nice. It looks like they're always there to help you.

In conclusion, the trip it couldn't go any better! Here're some photos that we took:

IS BAD LANGUAGE NECESSARY IN SONGS?

Two or three years ago a new trend in the musical industry started. A lot of recognised world wide singers started to introduce bad language in their songs. I'm not talking about the rappers like Emminem and others, they make a kind of music that it's almost understandable if they put a swear word. And maybe it's not the right thing, but they always have been like that. 

I'm talking about singers who have audience from all the ages and they have THE NEED of putting swear words in their songs. In the United Kingdom they have banned those kind of songs, or just the swear word. But what can they do when the whole song is a swear word? Like Fuck You by CeeLo Green, a very enthisuastic song. My little cousin was singing that song the other day in the car and she had no idea of what she was singing. They're showing people that there's nothing bad about saying rude things. More recently, Brirney Spears made Work Bitch. What kind of people thought that this was a good idea? I can't even understand the joke. But there's no joke in it. 

At the beginning here in Spain the radio stations made an effort to camuflage the bad language, but not anymore.

Now in youtube you will find every song and the clear version (the same song without any bad language). What's the point of making two versions? I think that we're loosing the concept of a good singer. A good singer should have to know how to express himself without using bad language, with sarcasm, irony, or whatever. Our biggest weapons are our words. How can you defend yourself with an "I'm a bitch" in your shield?

I didn't feel the need of putting stars (*) on the bad words because everyone is used to it, right?

Here is an example of the song Fuck You by CeeLo Green, which I'm sure that everyone has heard it before:

And here's the version that you'll hear in the UK, Forget You:


Perhaps this song would haven't been as famous as it was but it wasn't necessary.

WE WANT OUR VILLAINS BACK!

Last week we were doing a Spanish test and one of the exercices was to read a little text. The text was about that children nowadays don't know a lot about what is good or what is bad and it's because all the films or cartoons are changing the role of the villain.

 I remember when I was little and I was being anoying my mother would tell me that "el monstre del sac" would come and get me and I got very scared. Nowadays, my seven year-old cousin wants to be the villain of the movies! It happens that the villains aren't really villains, they aren't evil it's the way that they are. They are evil because they has some resons and they end up being innocent and good people. When I was a child the villains just wanted to annoy people and at hey would end up dead or running away. 

When a child sees a movie and the evil turns to a good character, the child is not able to recognise the bad from the good. We are growing up in a society where good is always the winner. Where zombies and vampires go to highschool, have girlfriends and have to take care of their families. But we all know that in reallity, monsters are always going to be monsters, and that good it isn't always winning.

The old vampires.
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The new ones.
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MY VIEWS ON RELIGION

When I was born my parents had me christened, I did my comunion at the age of nine and I got confirmated when I was fifteen. I don't know why I have done all those things because now when I think about those moments I wouldn't consider them as important for my life, although I had good memories of that. I don't consider myself an atheist but I don't believe in God, at least not the Christian God that almost everyone arround me believe in. 

My point of view is that everyone needs to believe in something, if it exists or not it's not important. How are you going to have faith if you don't believe in anything?

You have to believe in something that fits your personality, that makes you feel comfortable. If not, you're not going to believe in it, you would just accept it . Perhaps because you have grown up in a certain religion or you just don't care. 

I didn't care until I realised that what Christian religion was offering me was not what I needed. The fact is that we all need something to rely on. I believe in human society. If someone has inventef all the religions, why I can't invent one for myself?

Is Wi-Fi going to be our next God?
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