Victor - Birth Shortcuts

A baby is a baby, no matter what!

First of all, I believe that a woman should have the right to make any decision about her body. It is hard for me to even imagine the hardship that a woman goes through when she gives birth and all the pregnancy-period issues and labor complications that come with it. Based on this foundation, I think that if the advances in technology allow women to have babies in different ways, why can't they take advantage of these alternative methods?

For me, considering to adopt a child is not a strange idea. I strongly believe that you can establish a strong parent-child bond with a child even if the child is not of your kinship, the affective feeling comes with the relationship. Of course, I agree that the older the child, the weaker the bond would be, but the point is, I think it doesn't matter how you choose to have a baby; moreover, it opens many possibilities, for instance, Surrogacy, when a woman agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for a contracted party, In Vitro Fertilization which allows you to have a tube baby, or to induct an early due date in women in order to avoid birth-pain for them.

So, if my partner tells me that she wants to have a baby in any of these methods I would support her without any hesitation.

Elaine-6-birth shortcuts

Birth @ seventh month: why take the risk?

The medicine is progressing very fast and I think in some years in the future women will be able to give birth in the seventh month without any risk for the baby. If it becomes possible, I think a lot of women will choose to do so, considering that lots of them don't want to stop working just because of the pregnancy.

Even nowadays, women put their personal lives aside because of their jobs. Some of them even decide not to have children because they wouldn't have time to take care of them. But later, they realize that it was not really worth it and maybe the job was not as important as they had thought, because anyone can replace you at work, but , no one can do that in you personal life. And then, when they realize it, it is too late and perhaps they are too old to have babies!

Even if the birth in the seventh month were possible, personally, I wouldn't do it. Because, in my opinion, this is not natural, and if it is not natural, it isn't good! For me, two months is nothing when you compare it to your entire life. But, still, these two months are important for the baby, otherwise babies would be born in their seventh month. I would blame myself for the rest of my life if my baby had a problem because I had rushed the birth. So, why take the risk?

Michell-1-bucketlist

The top 5 on my bucketlist.

I have a lot of things to do before I kick the bucket, at fist I want to sing in front of a big audience in a big place, like a stadium and play with good musicians in an unplugged concert. I dream about this every time I listen and see a concert; it is so emotional for me, because I  can conect to the artists and see how  they are enjoying their performance.

 Moreover, I really want to travel and know more about other cultures, because I think that makes me a better person and  understand what  life is  about; I have always wanted to go to New York city, since I was a child and visit broadway and watch all the musicals that were playing there, so New York would be the first place to visit.  Also I want to go to Paris and drink a good bottle of wine just at the Eiffel Tower and be able to speak and understand french.

Theater is one of my favorite things in life, so another item on my list is working in a really big theater and acting in an awesome play.

Another goal I  have  is to meet someone really interesting that can leave me speechless. He or she doesn't have to be someone famous or rich, but someone smart enough to teach interesting things. Also,  I want to find a man and share a true love story just like Mr. Darcy in  Jane Austen's book. Someone that change my life and my vision of love; this is one of the hardest thing on my bucketlist, but I'm super enthusiastic to realize this dream!.

These are just a few things I want to do and they are not going to change easily, but there are  a lot of things to do in life and they can change with  time and with the opportunites life brings. We all have an idea what we want to do and we need something to persuit and to hold on , something or someone to bring flavour to our lives. Remember if you can do something today and now, do it!! you never know if its the last time you are going to be able to do it!!! say what you need to say, and have the courage to persuit your dreams!! I'm too young but wise enough to know that 'today' is what we  have, so make plans and forget and forgive the past,; let life be!! 

Victor-2-BucketList

It's hard to think about "the top 5" on my bucket list. There is a lot of things that I promise myself that I'm going to do or achieve before I get too old to do or before "I kick the bucket", however, it's hard to put and order them on a list. But let's give it a try!

I love to travel, so, I'd like to visit as many countries as possible, know about the cultures of these countries. Now that I'm studying with people from many other countries, I'm very interested to know about their cultures and traditions, and also to visit as many as historical buildings as I can.

I like languages too, so another goal that I have in mind is learning other languages besides English. I'd like to learn French, Portuguese and a challenging language like Japanese because I love Japanese animation.

In my professional field, Systems Engineering, there are a lot of branches related to each other. Digital Animation has always been appealed to me, and I'd like to make an animation movie or work in that field for a while at some point of my life.

I've always liked sports, and I'd like to take up  one seriously or try at least  a few of them once, for instance tennis, squash, skiing, snowboarding, sky-diving, ice-climbing, scuba-diving, snorkeling, water rafting, horseback riding, archery or flying in a hot-air balloon.

Last but not least, I want to make a difference in someone’s life, do some kind deeds without expecting anything in return such as being a mentor to someone, offering my services to a humanitarian cause, giving a candid surprise to my wife, my parents or someone else.

I try to remind myself that if I lived everyday as if it were the last day of my life, I would make a difference in the lives of many people, and that is what I try not to forget. I just want to finish with these words from John Lennon that I like: Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.




 

Elaine-4-BucketList

I haven't thought about my bucket list yet!I guess I'm still young, so... better late than never! 

You know, one of my big dreams is to be a mom! And I wish so many things for my sons...  So, I'm gonna do the list of the things that my sons should do and Uh, I guess many of these things might work for me too!

First, I want them to know how to play a musical instrument. It is like having a soundtrack of your life, isns't it great? Also, I consider it important and fun to learn a martial art. It will give them a good sense of defense and justice!

Later, I want them to live in a very different country from the one they were born. It will allow them to have another view of life! And when they are adults and have settled down, it would a good idea to try/learn other things than their jobs, which they already know how to do. This is good to keep them with their mind open! And the last but not the least, they should try the maximum possible number of different kinds of food! After all, eating is one of the biggest pleasures in life!

 

That's it, guys!! Let's get started?!!

William - Bucket list

Bucket list - Top five!!

Sooner or later you're going to die. So, what is special in your life? What kind of thing you must do before kicking the bucket? Well, I already have my list. Let's see how many of these things I will be able to do before Mr. Dead comes after me.

First of all I would like to sail around the world. I love ocean and I'm a boat addict. There's nothing better than getting a boat and sailing the ocean. This is definitely the first item on my list.

The second one is an another huge travel. But this time, it's going to be on my motorcycle. Not only travelling around South America, like I did in the past, but going from West to East, crossing countries and knowing tons of different people and cultures. It could be amazing!

After these crazy trips, if I survive, I would like to learn how to play the guitar. Since I was a child I've been seeing those famous guitar players and I always have had a feeling that one day I could be one of them.

Another goal that I am chasing now, it's to become a fluent English speaker. It's not easy as it seems. Learning another language demands a lot of effort, and sometimes you might think about giving it up, but I'm doing my best to achieve this goal.

Last but not least, everyone in the world should try skydiving. Such a great feeling of freedom. Nothing compares to being free in the sky, flying around without any concern.

After doing all these things, I think I can die happily with joy in my heart!

Infants, the only "Personas non grata" in Age-Restricted Communities

I believe that these kind of restricted communities should have second thoughts about what they call "Successful Age-Restricted Housing Development". Many cases documented on having problems with these restrictions, are found that the most close neighbours are the last ones that have problems with these families with children.

I think community boards could be more tolerant allowing a low percentage of families having children or at least put them under evaluation before they can say: "Remove the child or sell the house within 6 months!". People end up losing their homes because they won't lose their children. I know the reason why this bylaw exists, elderly people have the right to live in peace, in a tranquil environment, but how can they live peacefully when they ask families that cannot afford get other home to throw their children out. I believe that community boards can take a poll on these issues with neighbours as well.

Nick-22- Age restriction: for or against?

  NO BABIES? ARE YOU CRAZY!!?

Today I learned that in Canada they have got age restricted communities. These communities prohibit people below the age of 19   from living with them. We read an article about a family who lives in a restricted community; they have been charged by a 200 dollar per week fine because they have a baby. I think this is completely absurd. All of us were babies to begin with, how can we deny other people the right to have children and live wherever they want as long as they are not disturbing other people's lives?

Whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, an atheist or a Buddhist children are considered holy in your belief. They are pure, cute and they symbolize our beginning. All of us were little babies when we came to this World, how can we reject to be with other babies!? Of course I don't think that everyone should have children and they should live with children all the time, but try to push them away from their neighbourhood? it is just not good.

I don't think that people should be charged just because they have children. Creating a family is what humans do and it's only natural for us to have children. Old people should know this better than we,the younger generation, do!!

Nick-21-Teacher's problems

                    BEING NASSER

My blog will be about a certain teacher who has to deal with certain students who are allowed to use computers in class. I will put myself in this teacher's shoes and try to solve his problems. caution is advised because this teacher's drama may damage your psychology!! 

Let's think about what Nasser has to suffer everyday; A class full of students who text,talk and surf on the Internet at the same time. he tries to be patient but naturally his students abuse his good-willed tactics. Since he is not yelling around or smashing their cell phones, they keep on doing what they want to do even through class. What should he do? start being strict and use extreme measures in order to make sure that no one is idling in his class? or maybe he should go easy on them and hope that they will understand in time?

I think it depends on the circumstances. He can be a bad teacher if you piss him off, but as long as you don't frustrate him he will be the best teacher on earth. Being an extremely angry teacher may cause students to alienate themselves from class and being an extremely nice teacher may cause students to take advantage this nice attitude; but being the teacher between these two qualities is the perfect place to be in my opinion.

But how can Nasser be the perfect teacher? he can be a little more angry because currently he is heading towards being the extremely nice teacher. He can use more effective methods on his students and he can take some of their sources of entertainment from them. This doesn't mean that he must be an angry teacher, just he can show that he has got the reins in his hands and no one will challenge him in terms of class management. I am not familiar with the teaching methods and Nasser knows them pretty good so I don't think that he should change those methods. 

In a nutshell, I think that Nasser is already a good teacher, but to achieve complete control over students he should be a little bit more serious. As one of his students I beg him not to be extremely angry and not to be offended by this blog in any way and I hope that this will help anyone who reads it!!

Elaine-2-In the teacher's shoes

I was asked to pretend to be a teacher and deal with my students being distracted by devices. So, let's do it!?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Hi! My name is Elaine, but you can call me Miss Hira. I'm a teacher of digital game programming and today I'm gonna tell you a story that happened last week. Well, as usual, I gave my students 30 minutes to develop an idea of a new environment to be used in a logic game. In the mean time, I was in front of my computer analyzing the following activity.

All of a sudden, I heard some giggles. I decided to ignore them. Erm, giggles again! Uh, I only looked at them and kept doing what I was doing. Then, the giggles were louder!! Oh, boy! What those students were doing? Let's see: Willy was texting on his cellphone; Nicky was you-tubing some party's video; Jessy, chatting on Facebook while Vikky was concentrating on his camera. Oh my goodness! I just couldn't stand that! I started yelling at them so angry and annoyed... (OK, I confess: I did swear too) that the class went to a complete silence! Or almost complete, if it wasn't the whimper of Anny.

Gosh, what had I done? But they were wrong, right? They did deserve it, didn't they?
(PAUSE)
Oh, well... yeah, I think I exaggerated, eh!

But look at my situation: I was so upset because none of them had remembered my birthday (that it was that day) and moreover, they were not even doing their task at least not to bother me talking with my sister on Fac.... (opsy, I admit! I was also logged in!)

Suddenly, Youngy entered in the classroom with a beautiful cake (Willy had sent him a text message to do so), Nikky played the "Happy Birthday" song from the You Tube video while Vikky was taking some pictures of that moment. When I looked at my screen I had just received a very nice message from Jessy!

Such a surprise! I was not expecting that! They definitely melted my heart. Uh, Anny was still crying! I shouldn't have yelled at them like I did.  And, of course, despite being my birthday, the direction gave me a pep talk about the misbehavior! In the end, everybody shared the cake and we had a sweet end! ;)


________________________________________________________________________________


Conclusion of the story: I am just glad that I have Nasser as my teacher and not me!

Elaine-1-ads

Advertisements: they are part of our lives

It's early morning, you wake up and open the newspaper to be up-to-date with the news while you have your breakfast. As you flip the pages, you are shot by all kinds of advertisement. Well, now you are off to work. You take your car and, in the meantime, you listen to the radio. But every frequency you try, you just find ads. Not to mention the vision pollution of the billboards. You arrive at work and open your e-mail. It is full of junk mail! In your lunch time, all of the restaurants are trying to call your attention. After work, you just want to rest at home, so you turn on the TV while you have dinner. Now, you have a shower of commercials trying to sell you things. So you decide to switch the channel to a culinary program. Oh no, in the middle of the dish preparation, guess what?! It is interrupted by someone in the studio trying to sell you the newest powerful camera ever invented. Suddenly, the phone rings: "Hello, Sir.! Would you like to open an account in our bank? We have good conditions and rates..."
 

A similar situation to that described above is lived by a lot of people nowadays. Our lives are almost led by advertisements. What you eat, what you wear, what you do... Everything is influenced  by what the advertisers say you should do/be. In some ways, you might think that there is no choice but to do what the media says. It happens  due to the brainwashing that this huge industry is doing all the time in your life. As it was said, it is business. It is their job. They won't stop doing it. But we all have our own free will and freedom to choose what we want for our lives. We must have a filter to see what is suitable and healthy for us. If we bought everything that is advertised and said that is  the best for us, we would definitely not be in a very good condition as they have promised.

Are the advertisements good or bad for our lives? This answer depends on you. It depends on how you deal with it in your daily routine. If you are a sensible person and use the filter in your favor, you can take advantage of this plenty of advertisements that is thrown at you every day. Otherwise, you will become a slave of this system. You will lose a lot of money on useless things you buy for yourself  and get frustrated about bad choices you have made. On the other hand, we are lucky to have a great variety of products, to have possibilities of choice. After all, we are the owner of our lives and we still have our free will to decide what is the best for us!

Victor - 2 - Ads

The Invasion of Ads!

I believe that nowadays our society has a culture of consumerism because of the ads. There are more ads that have bad influence in the culture of the society. They affect people education, the way they behave in home or society, and in their quality of life as well.

For instance, I always see people striving to get the new gadgets even if they can't afford them or even if they have little time with the last gadget. And they are always investing in updating such stuffs while the fact is that they can go without it, getting the new technology doesn't mean you have a better quality of life. In that way the ads are very persuasive.

Another field the ads aim is young people. The ads manage a lot of stereotypes which causes kids and youngsters lose their identity gradually, making them forget their entities, affecting their thoughts and education.

People may not be aware of the power of ads but let me say that it is scientifically proven that they are even capable of provoking chemical changes in your body. Once I read that there was an experiment in a restaurant that playing  a kind of music helped to trigger  the need of consuming sweet things in human body. During that period the sale of ice cream increased 30%. Another time I read that an episode of a famous cartoon causes stress on many Japanese children and it had to be banned.

I'm against ads because the culture of the companies who sponsor the ads aims to induce people to consume as much as they can, and there is not enough laws to control what they show. There're no more good ads that really help people.

Jessica - 6 - Ads

Impact of ads in our life 

                                              

The advertisement has a big impact in our live, which is worrying, because it can affect our lives negatively and  positively. Ads can manipulate our mind and comportment in different aspects, there are many ads that practically hypnotize the viewers.                          

                                                          

The people change their habits, comportment, or style just because some advertisement is saying that your body, your hair or you can be better if you do or not determinate things that it is saying. Another example is when they say that you need a new car, a new cellphone, this type of ad created into this people a sensation of anxiety and dissatisfaction if they do not have this product. 

     

                                           

Another negative point is about how these advertisements completely escape from reality, affecting specially the kids, so we should limited this kind of ads from kids. The honesty of the information that is linked to the advertisement should be strictly enforced. 

Nowadays, people expend money that they do not have with things that they do not need, just because some advertisement had influence in their mind. In nowadays, we have more things than any generation before us and therefore we are not happier. In fact, we are more unfortunate than the generations that preceded us.