Christmas is here again!

Happy Christmas Day! Yes, I know Christmas Day was yesterday, but better late than never, or so they say. However, we are on holidays, and although I cannot enjoy them as much as I hoped because of the exams taking place in January, I am having a good time. I know there are a lot of “Grinches” around here, hating these holidays, but fuck them! Christmas is awesome!

On one hand, I am not a religious person and I don’t like the consumerism attached to Xmas. People get crazy buying things, and I am of the opinion that the more expensive gift is not the best one. The thing about Christmas is not receiving gifts; the thing about Christmas is enjoying time with family and friends. In addition, I truly hate Xmas-themed movies; they’re horrible- except from Love Actually, I watch it every year. On the other hand, I love the holiday’s mood, the street decoration and the carols. And how could I forget the journeys? I have family spread all over Spain, so every year I travel to see them, and it is real fun because I love travelling. This year I am not seeing my family in Pamplona, but I am going to Cádiz.

Regarding to my holiday’s plans, I am very excited, because this year I am going to Granada to celebrate New Year’s Eve with my boyfriend. It is thrilling for the reason that it is going to be our first trip together and alone, I mean, without any other people. I’ve been planning that trip for months! We are visiting the Alhambra Palace, the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel, where the Catholic Kings were buried. I think I’ll post some photos and review when I’ll be there. On New Year’s Day we are taking a bus to Algeciras, where my paternal family lives.

Touching Christmas Eve, I had dinner at my maternal grandparents’ – where I am living at this moment- with my family. It was nice, because I have an uncle and cousins living in Tenerife, and I hardly see them. My little sister was excited, because my cousins are about her age. We sat in front of the fire and talked about old times, when my uncles and mother were teenagers. And then, gift time! They almost forced my boyfriend to dress up as Santa and appear with a bag full of presents. Most of them were for the girls, because we don’t like to buy gifts for everyone, Christmas is for children. I got some gifts, though.  My mother gave me a tin music box full of chocolates- it’s a pity than I’m on a diet. Nah, fuck the diet, I’ve already eat them all. I loved it, and the music that the box plays is Jingle Bells, it sounds beautiful. As for the rest, I got money- always well received, I’ve already talked about how expensive being a student is- and a Harley Quinn’s t-shirt from my boy. 

And that was all, folks! Happy Holidays!

Problem-Solution Essay: Dealing with the expensive act of living

When I was younger, my mother used to give me some pocket money to spend through the month, it was little quantity but enough for me, and I managed well. But now it has changed. I am a young adult and I have more expensive needs as long as I am a university student, so I have my own credit card, which is great but also problematic. Wasting money is incredibly easy, and administrate becomes a necessity. I need to learn to be aware of my costs in order to reduce them.

One possible solution is to return to the childhood-method, when my mother was the administrator of my money. This is good not only because there is a limited quantity of money but also because mother are (usually) wiser than we are and know how to manage with money. Although this way has some pros, I don’t like it completely due to the fact that it is childish and doesn’t help you to develop your sense of responsibility and maturity, which is quite important in adulthood.

A cool piggybank may help

A second and also valid option is to put the money limit by myself, a maximum amount of money that can be spent per week. For example, 25€, so the total quantity spent in the whole month would be 100€. Of course, this method would make you incapable of affording lots of things, and it makes it harder to know that you put the limit. Anyway, that’s the thing, or so I believe. Yes, it is hard, but it helps you to grow as an adult.

We all agree that the best method is to control what you do with you money, and putting a limit is a great idea as long as it makes you realize that the act of existing is expensive. It is important- vital, I’d say- to find mature ways to balance the incomes and costs during your college years, or you can finish ruined. 

Good evening!

Something Stupid as Goodnight

I found that funny and wanted to share. That's all.

Goodnight.

City of Dreadful Night

As Reme says, reading makes you a better writer. With this in mind, I started looking for some Victorian poetry and I found something marvellous. I love poetry as long as it is highly demanding, and shows the author’s control of the language. When I was a child it didn’t use to like it because I found it pretentious – and I didn’t like children’s poems because they were stupid- but when I was about 14, I read a poem called La última lamentación de Lord Byron, by Gaspar Núñez de Arce, that attracted me to poetry. I would quote some verses, but it is an Spanish poem and it is quite long, so it wouldn’t be very useful…- anyway, if you want to read it, I'll leave a link down bellow. 

Therefore, I started reading Lord Byron, William Blake and some more, and now I can say poetry thrills me, it really does. The important thing is that today I discovered a Victorian poem named City of Dreadful Night, written by a Scottish poet whose name was James B. V. Thompson. It is about the author’s loss of faith. The city of dreadful night is supposed to be London, seen by a despairing atheist. I find these verses hopeless, pessimistic and melancholic, the lack of eagerness is evident. However, I like that style; I find it so desperate that moves me. I guess I like that sort of gothic stuff.

Without further delay, here a fragment of the long poem, City of Dreadful Night: 

O melancholy Brothers, dark, dark, dark!                   25

O battling in black floods without an ark!

  O spectral wanderers of unholy Night!

My soul hath bled for you these sunless years,

With bitter blood-drops running down like tears:

  Oh dark, dark, dark, withdrawn from joy and light!       30

My heart is sick with anguish for your bale;

Your woe hath been my anguish; yea, I quail

  And perish in your perishing unblest.

And I have searched the highths and depths, the scope

Of all our universe, with desperate hope                    35

  To find some solace for your wild unrest.

And now at last authentic word I bring,

Witnessed by every dead and living thing;

  Good tidings of great joy for you, for all:

There is no God; no Fiend with names divine                 40

Made us and tortures us; if we must pine,

  It is to satiate no Being's gall.

It was the dark delusion of a dream,

That living Person conscious and supreme,

  Whom we must curse for cursing us with life;              45

Whom we must curse because the life he gave

Could not be buried in the quiet grave,

  Could not be killed by poison or the knife.

This little life is all we must endure,

The grave's most holy peace is ever sure,                   50

  We fall asleep and never wake again;

Nothing is of us but the mouldering flesh,

Whose elements dissolve and merge afresh

  In earth, air, water, plants, and other men.

We finish thus; and all our wretched race                   55

Shall finish with its cycle, and give place

  To other beings with their own time-doom:

Infinite aeons ere our kind began;

Infinite aeons after the last man

  Has joined the mammoth in earth's tomb and womb.         60

We bow down to the universal laws,

Which never had for man a special clause

  Of cruelty or kindness, love or hate:

If toads and vultures are obscene to sight,

If tigers burn with beauty and with might,                  65

  Is it by favour or by wrath of Fate?

Enjoy it and goodnight!

LINK to the entire poem: http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/ctdnt10.htm

LINK to "La última lamentación de Lord Byron": 

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/ultima-lamentacion-de-lord-byron-poema--0/html/ff1fc088-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html#I_2_

Devil's Trill Sonata

It's been a while since the last time I posted anything, I know and I apologize, but I had a terrible lack of inspiration.

Today I'm writing about baroque music, more specifically about Tartini and it's wonderful Sonata "Devil's Trill", which I leave you right here.

I hardly recommend you opening the video and listening the video while reading this, as I am doing while writing. 

The official name of this song is Violin Sonata in G minor, and it is a solo violin piece with figured bass accompaniment, most known because of it is extremely hard to play, and it requires a great technique.

But the interesting thing about this sonata it’s its story. As the most enchanting stories do, this one begins with a dream. One night, Tartini dreamt that the Devil appeared to him and proposed to be his servant. Without any doubt, he accepted, and he couldn’t be more pleased as long as all his wishes were satisfied by the Devil. Among other things, Tartini gave the Devil his violin to prove he could play. In Tartini’s own words: “How great was my astonishment on hearing a sonata so wonderful and so beautiful, played with such great art and intelligence, as I had never even conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, and - I awoke”.

He picked up his violin and tried to reproduce that marvelous melody. “The music which I at this time composed is indeed the best that I ever wrote, and I still call it the "Devil's Trill", but the difference between it and that which so moved me is so great that I would have destroyed my instrument and have said farewell to music forever if it had been possible for me to live without the enjoyment it affords me.”

Nice, isn't it? I love that kind of stories.

Good night. 

Tim Burton is overrated

I can feel the hate of millions of teenage fangirls from the distance at this single moment, but it is still true. I am not saying that Tim Burton is the worst director in the world, or even detracting him, but he is not the best either. I must say I like his dark, gothic style and his stories are usually very interesting. So, what's the problem then? He is not original. He used to, but now he's living on his well-known clichés, nothing innovative. Don't you believe me? Let's analyze some of his most known films: Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Dark Shadows and Alice in Wonderland.

1. All of them are about two different worlds as the two sides of the same coin: antagonistic but joined at the hip. In Nightmare Before Christmas, these two worlds are Halloween Town and Christmas Town. In the Corpse Bride, the living world and the world of the dead. Sleepy Hollow, the supernatural and the natural world. Dark Shadows, the same as Sleepy Hollow. Alice in Wonderland, Wonderland and the “real” world. These are only some examples, but all his movies follow this.
2. There is a lonely character, a misunderstood who doesn't fit to his/her (but mainly his) world and cries out for acceptance. Examples: Victor, Ichabod Crane, Barnabas and Alice. Jack Skellington is the only exception here, as long as he's the most popular character in Halloween Town, but he feels that he needs a change. Victor is not happy with his life, he follows his fathers decisions and lives without bravery. Ichabod is ahead of his time but underestimated in his city, and considered a weird thing in the country village of Sleepy Hollow. Barnabas doesn't fit his world because he is a vampire, and he died so many years ago, it is that easy. Alice finds her world boring and the people surrounding her dull, and she's not satisfied with the proposal.

Now it's time to talk about his other films. Frankenweenie, for example. I watched that film with my little sister and my mother, and I liked it, but I finded the story very Burton-stereotypical. A weird boy who has no friends but a dog. The dog dies- how sad-. Some old horror film style - fantastic, I must say- and nothing more. It was fun and I had a nice time watching it. But was it something new? Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Let's talk about Sweeney Todd. I could sum up saying “too many songs”. Awesome aesthetics, nevertheless.

But, hey, I said I liked Tim Burton, and that is completely true, despite of my criticism. I am just saying that he could do it better if he gave up the comfort of his golden formula. What about Ed Wood? It is a fantastic movie. Tender, electrifying, alive, but also melancholic, and still has evidences of his characteristical style- and Lisa Marie is just awesome, the same can be said of Johnny Depp.- What about Big Fish? Yes, it also has the “two incompatible worlds” topic – fantasy and reality- but that film is magical and bright, like a modern tale- and Ewan McGregor is *-* (no words can be said).

Of course, I couldn't finish this post without talking about Mars Attack. Is it a good movie? No, but at least it is original, funny and tacky enought to deserve to be watched. And, hey, the cast is good, as the acting is.

So, the moral of the post is: Tim Burton, please, be yourself again. Expose yourself, take a chance. We know you're very comfortable doing always the same, and teenage crazy-emo-gothic girls like that, but some of us would like to see your creativity working again, not just an amount of burtonian stuff and some Danny Elfman music.

Happy Halloween and think about that.

Standing up for C3PO

If I had to make a list including some Star Wars icons, C3PO would absolutely be in it. Altohough plenty of fans don't like the golden android at all, he0s still part of the saga, and I support him. Some poeple say that the character is too stupid and doens0t fit the saga at all. C3PO is considered a very childish android comparing to R2D2, as long as the second one helped lots of times the lead charcters, and the first was always complaining. ON the other hand, C3PO adds the comical thing to the western spirit of Star Wars- because SW is a galatic western, after all- creating some funny situations provided that the saga is not as adult or as serious as some fans believe. It is a family movie, and a silly character messing around is not that bad.

 

NOTICE: This arguments cannot be applied to Jar Jar Binks.  He does deserve death. We have enough with one silly character.

Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas

Tonight I wanted to share with you a piece of work which I consider specially inspiring. It is called "Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas" and it was written by Alan Moore, an awesome graphic novel writer (awesome is such a weak word to allude him). He is considered the best graphic novel writer in history, and one of the most influent English writers in the last 50 years. Should I say it clearer? He is one of my favourites, and he deserves a post. This fragment, "Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas" is one of the prose pieces included in Watchmen, one of his most known comic books. It is supposed to be an article written by one of Moore's characters in Watchmen, Dan Dreiberg, who is an ornithologist.

With no further delay, I will show you a fragment of the beautiful article.

"It was a bird advanced in years, its shriek that of a deranged old man, wheeling madly through the dark and freezing sky against the ragged night clouds, and the sound halted me in my footsteps. It is a fallacy to suppose that owls screech to startle their prey from hiding, as some have suggested; the cry of the hunting owl is a voice from Hell, and it turns the scrabbling voles to statues, roots the weasel to the soil. In my instant of paralysis there on the glistening macadam, between the sleeping auto-mobiles, I understood the purpose behind the cry with a biting clarity, the way I'd understood it as a boy, belly flat against the warm summer earth. In that extended and timeless moment, I felt the kinship of simple animal fear along with all those other creatures much smaller and more vulnerable than I who had heard the scream as I had heard it, were struck motionless as I was. The owl was not attempting to frighten his food into revealing itself. Perched with disconcerting stillness upon its branch for hours, drinking in the darkness through dilated and thirsty pupils, the owl had already spotted its dinner. The screech served merely to transfix the chosen morsel, pinning it to the ground with a shrill nail of blind, helpless terror. Not knowing which of us had been selected, I stood frozen along with the rodents of the field, my heart hammering as it waited for the sudden clutch of sharpened steel fingers that would provide my first and only indication that I was the predetermined victim.

[...]

The moment had passed. I could move again, along with all the relieved, invisible denizens of the tall gass.We were safe.It wasn't screaming for us, not this time.

[...]

Nowadays, when I observe some specimen of Caine noctua, I try to look past the fine grey down on the toes, to see beyond the white spots arranged in neat lines, like a firework display across its brow. Instead, I try to see the bird whose image the Greeks carved into their coins, sitting patiently at the ear of the Goddess Pallas Athene, silently sharing her immortal wisdom. Perhaps, instead of measuring the feathered tufts surmounting its ears, we should speculate on what those ears may have heard. Perhaps when considering the manner in which it grips its branch, with two toes in front and the reversible outer toe clutching from behind, we should allow ourselves to pause for a moment, and acknowledge that these same claws must once have drawn blood from the shoulder of Pallas."

I know my selection is quite long, but everything is a must in that text, so if you want to read it full, I'll leave a link down below. Of course, I strongly recommend reading Watchmen, you won't be disappointed. 

LINK: http://coldclaritymountain.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/blood-from-shoulder-of-pallas-written_15.html

NOTICE: This won't be the only post about Alan Moore and his work. 

Goodnight!

Describing Katya

It's been a while since my last post, but now I'm here again. Last week, we had to describe someone in class, so I decided to describe one of my RPG characters (roleplay game). Here I go:

"Katya had the ability of shocking people. It was impossible not to get impressed the first time you meet her, not only because of her breath-taking appearance, but also because of her behaviour. She was tall and skinny, but she walked like an authentic czarina, and by looking into her deep blue eyes, you could realize something was wrong with her. Elegant and almost anachronic, the young Katya was the most egoistical person I had ever known. Her eyes were the key, there was something wicked beyond them, as if you could see her dark and sick soul. Everybody in town considered her untrustworthy and even dangerous."

This edit is a work of mine, a couple of years ago

In the Name of Security

In the name of security, they know your name
                    and the year you were born.
In the name of security, they know if you are married
                     single or divorced.
In the name of security, they control your salary,
                     and thanks to VISA, they know what you buy.
In the name of security, they can localize you wherever you are
                     thanks to smartphone's GPS.
In the name of security, they control your Google searches
                      and they hear all your phone conversations, just in case.
In the name of security, they know what you like
                      and thanks to Facebook, they know how you look like
In the name of security, you cannot scape of their control
                      and the saddest thing is that most of us do not care about it.

Does security worth it? Are you disposed to sacrifice your privacy?
Think about it.

P.S. Here's a video about this.

I am not a robot, am I?

“Prove that you are not a robot” said the robot, and I felt confused. Ironic, isn’t it? What is wrong with being a robot? And why should I prove that? Could that be called machine discrimination? Too many questions about a silly topic, I know, but when I am tired, I like to ramble about stupid things as they were interesting- one more question, why can’t stupid things be interesting? - So now, you’re going to read about robot discrimination.

In a world almost dominated by robots, human people have to type captchas to prove they are not machines. It sounds futuristic, but couldn’t be more real. We the people created them, and now, we have to create idiotic systems to demonstrate we are not machines. But one day, there will be machines able to type captchas, and it will be the end of humankind as we know it.

Think about it.

Goodnight. 

P.S. This video cannot prove I am not a robot, but it can prove I am not crazy.