martes, 26 de febrero de 2008

What would Julie Andrews have done?

   Since the moment I decided to attend the casting I was totally sure that I was not going to sing, I mean even though it was a MUSICAL the casting I was attending to, I was totally sure that nothing in this world will make me sing, I'm not a good at singing, believe me. Actually I was attending but not for trying to get one of the main roles because of my schedule will not let me, I'm not able to rehearse 2 hours a day with them, by this moment, I'm already attending to school from  3:00 to 9:00 PM from Monday to Friday and they rehearse from 5:30 to 7:30 PM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Unfortunately I can't make it and no way I'm going to skip classes, in fact spring break is coming, so I'll have the chance to get up-to-date with every detail of the development of the play.

   It's a shame that I don't have time to be in the beginning of this production, it's exciting for me to start a new project, the very first reading of the script, working on your character to take the idea of another person, both literally (the initial conception of the writer) and figuratively (the ACTOR'S own notion of a character), to give meaning to each dialogue, make it your own and get in touch with your role, etc.

   I enjoy ever time I get into a new project, and I decided to stay in this even though I know I don't have the enough time to see it how it starts and takes the form that is going to be presented to the audience, I'll do everything just to be there and stayed involved on it, because I totally like everything about theatre.

  The Director was very supportive with me, he gave me the chance of attend to the rehearsals when possible for me, and I told him that at summer vacation I'll be there full time.

Book Report

   I read  Se Reanuda  la Actuación by Richard Deming, it's a story about  Juan and Juanita whom used to be part of a circus with an acrobatic performance until he had an accident and his legs got broken, they used to be called “The Chabanellas” but since the accident he is in on a wheelchair, and they work doing a show of psychic, where Juan reads the mind of his audience, they’re doing this to earn enough money for an operation for Juan which is going to help him walk one more time.  There is also Mack a 40 years old man, strong, and with a sinister face, Carl Bremer who is the innkeeper of the hotel, a strong, and old man, owner of the Mercer (the hotel where the Chabanellas are staying) and Helen Bremer a slim, intelligent, and mature women, married with Carl.

   When Juanita Chabanella discovers the treat between Carl, Helen, and Mack in the kitchen of the  Mercer Hotel, the conflict begins because they are not going to let her go without first make sure that Juanita is not going to tell what she knows to the police. Juan tries to make a deal with them, if Mack let them go they won’t say nothing to the police but they will have to give a part of the money to Juan and Juanita, a part of the money that Kleinbeck paid for free his little son Freddy, who was kidnapped by Carl, when they left the room, Juanita looks for a telephone but there are telephone in her room so she ask Juan a coin for the telephone which is in the aisle of the hotel in her same floor, so she left the room looking for the telephone and then she dials 911, but before she can talk with the police, Helen takes the fire axe which is at the other side of the aisle, and breaks the telephone, giving the chance to Juanita of running to her room and lock the door after her,

   Then while Mack and Carl were trying to break into the room, Juanita dresses up with her old acrobatic suit and look for a cable to jump to, after the approbation of Juan, she sits in the edge of the window and by the time Mack opens the door and he and Carl enter to the room and Juanita jumps to the nearest cable, then they get closer to the window to see what happened, and they see Juanita hanging of the cable, and then she jumps to the floor and fells without any difficult. Just in time the police came and Juanita tells them what had happened, that was the signal that make Mack and Carl run from the Chabanella’s room trying to escape, and this is the end of the story.

   It’s a nice story with an unpredictable ending, I think it could have a better ending or a more interesting plot, the author left me with the idea of what could have happened after Juanita could tell to the police everything she had passed trough while she and her husband were kidnapped by Mack and Carl, what happened with Juan’s leg operation? Did the police caught Mack, and Carl?

martes, 19 de febrero de 2008

Ctrl + Z

     I'm the kind of guy which prefers to spend his time in front of the PC rather that watching TV, that's why I bought me a LapTop and I'm totally sure that's why I need lenses. Yes, I like to spend my free time on the internet doing a lot of things and by now I have a blog, a Myspace, my own web site, my account on Flickr, YouTube, Polyglot, Hi5, Facebook, Google, My Yahoo, Hotmail, Messenger, MSN Live and  subscriptions to the New York Times, Men's Health, Tampico Cultural, Play Montreal, BBC languages, MSN Groups, I even have a Metroflog which I deem as a waste of time if you take into account that you can only upload a picture a day! ...well this time I'm not going to write about that, I'll complain about it later.

    The thing is that I've spent a lot of time using a computer for translating, editing pictures, sending e-mails, chatting with pen pals, doing my homework, listening to music, watching videos, surfing the web, and everything you can work on with a computer I've done it, so I'm very used to the using of tools and shortcuts to make it easier my working on a computer and sometimes a unusual thing happens to me, as you may know, when you make a mistake when working with the computer you just push keyboards Ctrl and Z and your mistake is gone, as if it has never happened,  Wouldn't you like to be able to do this on the real life? By just pushing a bottom redo something...

   I mean sometimes I think of it and I wish it could be possible, there was a time when I was talking with someone face to face and then I call her by the name of his not-best-friend and I was so ashamed that I could only think of   "Ctrl + Z" ... obviously nothing happened, I have to face what I've done.  Let's think  of another example... once I was very hungry, and then I started cooking some pancakes, a minute later my cell phone rang and I went to answer the call, It took me too much time talking on the phone that the pancake got burned and I instantly said to myself  "Ctrl + Z"... God, I was so hungry!

domingo, 17 de febrero de 2008

My personal beliefs about superstitions

I can handle not checking my horoscope in the morning and I still can have a perfect day without worrying me about it, there are some other things that can take my day out of order but not missing my horoscope of the day, I'm not very superstitious but...well there is something that I believe in very bad,  DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FUTURE PROJECTS WITH OTHERS, it may sounds ridiculous but I avoid to do it, every time I tell to others about what I'm into, my plans never get done!, I don't care about cats walking toward me, or breaking mirror, I don't have any problem with that but when talking about my plans getting undone, that really upsets me.

I don't have a very scientific thinking but there are some silly things that I don't believe in such as wear amber beads around the neck to be protected against illness, gee! how could that  be possible?? I'm very critical, I'm always trying to see both sides of a situation and that's what think makes me the less superstitious.

viernes, 15 de febrero de 2008

I think I'm good at learning languages

Since I earn more fluency on my English, French was my first attempt at speaking another  language. Of course, being in Tampico I knew it was going to be a little bit hard, because I wasn't going to have the same exposure to French language that I have with English, so I enrolled into a French course at my college.  My teacher has been very effective in maintaining interest in the language, and I've been having a good time learning French during this weeks, I've only been studying for three weeks because my course started in January, and I take classes only on Saturdays, I know I'm learning a lot, when my class finishes I'm just waiting for it during the whole week. I decided to take French because I liked the language and I wanted to use all those teaching methods and techniques that I've learn at my college with myself, by keep on learning French being my own teacher when I'm not at class.

I'm also trying to catch courses and tips of learning french from the Internet, www.bbc.com/languages has been a very useful tool, and I've found myself some other good websites with interesting information, such as www.play-montreal.com, which is in english and is  not from france, but gives me a lot of facts about the living of the french community in Montreal, www.jump-gate.com has some lessons for beginners in the language, www.touslespodcasts.com has a lot of podcasts about many topics in french, I've tried the local radio podcasts, it's awesome, you must try it!... I'll give you some others on a next post...

martes, 12 de febrero de 2008

I really like blogging.

Actually I like to have a blog, it is a very useful tool and since I have my own blog, now I'm trying to meet people with the same interests on translation and languages that I have and whom also have a blog.

I like to write about anything... I may consider myself as a "natural" writer, I like to write about what's happening in my life, write about how I'm dealing with problems, about people, the developing of my new ideas.. everything.

What I like the most is to read the things I wrote on the last years, because it's like see myself from a different perspective,

I think I will not stop blogging for a while. There are so many blogs left in the Internet, it looks to me like buildings which are not finished yet, like a structure that was left after the construction started. I guess it depends on your motivation for maintaining a blog and what it's about, because if you don't have nothing interesting to talk about, you'll quit with it soon. I write mine for a very basic and personal reason: to keep track of the things that interest me. They may not be interesting to anybody else. If other readers find my blog worth-visiting, I feel flattered. I do my best every time I write a new post, I mean I want it to look good and to make it interesting... well, I don't spend thousand hours a day on it, because there are other things that I need to do, and this is only a blog after all, it is not the New York Times, I mostly do it on my free time, I try to make each post interesting and easy-to-read.

Since I started whit this blog as a school task, I've been reading a lot, I've been reading more and more, not only about grammar rules but about languages, science, health, history, literature, and a tons of other topics that across my path when surfing the web, and when something new come up to me, I look for it's meaning and usage, and then I add it into my own glossary, that's the best way I know to improve my vocabulary, because there are some things that people from America use a lot when they speak, but that will never appear on a ESL book no matter how modern or actualized it is.

Keep on blogging!!!

domingo, 10 de febrero de 2008

Tampico City

    The municipality of Tampico is located at the south-eastern end of the state of Tamaulipas. It borders to the south with the state of Veracruz connected by the Tampico Bridge and to the west with the State of San Luis Potosi. To the north it borders with the municipality of Altamira, which is my hometown, and to the east with Madero City, forming these three cities together what is known as the Metropolitan Zone, sharing some of its services and businesses, educational and cultural activities, as well as employment sources.
    Nowadays, the municipal government has joined forces with the state government are working together in a Project called  the “Mega–Proyecto Laguna del Carpintero” that includes the construction of a convention center, an aquarium, a hotel and a shopping mall.

jueves, 7 de febrero de 2008

My Top 5 of the best antidepressants.

I want to share with you The Top Five of the best Antidepressants that I know, and notice that Prozac and Valium aren't included here, actually I don't believe in medicines to cure something like depression. Everything is in our minds, and we can control our own body, and get what we want for our lifes. Try it!!

Well here we go...On the number Five If you like going out at night you're like me, once you get ready to go out at night to your favorite club, you already feel it. In my own case I start feeling different and I can even feel the energy and the emotion of going out with friends or whoever, once you're at the club, the music makes you move and forget about everything, I don't even need any drink to feel excited and keep it going all night long.

On the number Four of my top list, there is an afternoon doing gardening work, I used to garden early in the morning and I spend at least 30 minutes in gardening and in evening 15 minutes for watering all the plants I have it at my frontyard and backyard, I feel good when I have done it,I love the fresh air, I love working with my hands and making things grow.

In the middle of this list, on the number Three is the amazing SUNLIGHT, it may sound ridiculous but it's true, if you feel like you need some little bit of energy you just need to turn off TV, stop a bit with your work or house chores and go out to take a deep breath and feel the sunlight in all your skin and instantly you'll feel how the energy of the sun makes you feel better, this is totally true, haven't you notice what happens with a plant when doesn't catch enough sunlight for a few days... well that's the same that happen to us, If you lack sufficient sunlight on your skin, you will suffer terrible health effects, including depression, osteoporosis, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even schizophrenia. That's because the human body was designed to be exposed to sunlight on a frequent basis. So in case you can't visit go to the beach for a few hours, at least take a break and go outdoors. Don't you believe me? Then check this.

On my number Two of this list I consider that have a long chat with a closer friend, there's nothing you can hide to your best friend, at least I think like this, once I gather with my best friend, I can tell him everything, it's good to have someone who cheers you up when you feel so blue.

And finally, Workout is on the top of my list... There's nothing better than workout on the mornings, once I've started my day running in the park, or going to the gym, there's nothing that can let me down during the whole day, I don't even know how to describe the sensation I had after finish my rutine every day. The whole day seems to be totally amazing, I can face anything after my daily Workout session. Actually I'm not the only one who consider workout as a good antidepressant, check this.

Have you ever tried any of these?

domingo, 3 de febrero de 2008

Just My Luck

I couldn't post my previous post, so I'm writing it one more time, it said something like this:
With all the great things happening for me lately, fate was bound to soon step in and slap me around. Friday it was warm almost all day, everyone looked happy, but I didn't ended up getting happy too, plus I dropped my lap top down the stairs, I could watch it fall the whole way down - painful. Saturday was beautiful, I went to my French language course and I met some new people but when I got home something happened to my pc, and it didn't work. Sunday...forget about sunday...
So wish me luck for tomorrow, it seems like I'm going out with my cousins. I hope they can cheer me up enough to

Un traducteur chien-homme?

Vu dans les infos ce matin : "Des scientifiques hongrois travaillent à un logiciel analysant les aboiements qui pourraient permettre de mieux interpréter les émotions des chiens. Ces travaux pourraient aboutir à la commercialisation d'un appareil facilitant la communication entre le chien et l'homme."
Il y en a vraiment qui n'ont que ça à faire... Et si on réapprenait plutôt aux gens à communiquer entre eux ?