Just Me!! Raquel

Why do ppl want to fall in love?

2009-08-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

The ritual called "The wedding ceremony" is really the final scene of a fairy tale, they never tell you what is after the wedding,they never tell you that Cindarella turned the Prince crazy with her obssesive need to claen the clastle.They dont tell us what is after,because there is no AFTER.The beginning and the end of the romantic love is......marriage.
But it wasnt always like that before.In the 13th century there was something called Courtery love, where love had nothing to do with marrieage and nothing to do with Sex, in most cases it was defined as a passional relationship between a knight and a cout lady ,who of course was already marriaged, and so they coul never consumate their love.In this way they went for somthing more devine.They took sex out of the equation and what was left was an union of souls.Sex was always the fatal love posion. Look at the literature of that time..lancelot and Wendolen .All consumation would lead to madness ,despair of even death.Clinical expert are united in the belief that true love has spiritual dimension while romantic love is a myth, a lie, an illusion full with manipulation.Speaking of manipulation , is like going to the movies and we see the lovers kiss, and the music dwell and we buy it.So when my date takes me to the movie and then home ,if i dont hear the philarmonica then i dump him.
Now the question is..why do we buy it?We buy it because whter it is a myth or a manipulation ,lets face it ,We all want to fall in love.Because that experience makes us feel completely alive,where every sense is highten,every emotion is magnified ,everyday reality is shattered and we are flung into the heavens.it may onlylast ans hour, a day an aefternoon but it doesnt disminish its value,because we are left with momeries that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. So, the fianl question is.. why people want to fall in love when it can have such a short life and it can be desvastely paintful,beacuse for me.....WHEN IT DOES LAST IT FEEL FUCKING GREAT

2009-06-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a really long time since the last time I dare to write in here,despite the forgetful promise that I made to myself to keep on expressing myself in this space. More than 8 months have passed since the dream became true ,still everything is much more the same.Work is still an dillusion which keeps me waiting untill hope seems to fade away.Time will tell.However what most concerns me is the velocity with which people around me have changed.I am not saying that they have done so in a bad manner, they are just different for me now.I have the feeling that everyone is having a impression from me, impression that is twisted, perverse and cruel.Specially cruel.Submerging me in a state of constand alert.I hate being alert.This feeling is incresed , ironically, when I am at "home". A disconection between my sisters and I has taken place .It is hard to say exactely WHEN ,though.But every time I come home and my sisters are in, I have the feeling of entering in a Vampire nest where bloodsucker hosts are eagered to taste my flavour.I know it might be a little over reacted but everething takes another form , shape and size when i am at home.Hard to distinguish what is real and what is not.Hard to see and a simple gesture like preparing breakfast and just that or if it carries other implications.IN the meantime I hope that some alliens come to my house take all my family away , wash the brain with cosmis soup , free their mind of resentful thought and return them as we used to be one day far away in the past.

Mi vida hasta ahora

2008-09-07T07:55:00.001-07:00

Mi primera entry en Español, hasta me parece extraño volver a saborear el impacto y la exactitud de las palabras con candor latino.El leer y escribir en ingles ha colonizados hasta mi manera de tratar de crear una oracion en mi propio idioma.Tanto he internalizado esta lengua ( auque a veces no se note mucho) que me llegue a encontrar en situaciones incomodas hasta descabelladas.Por ejemplo, siempre me causo risa la manera en la cual los centro americanos y radicados en USA hablan . La mezcla de impetuosa de las dos lengua tiene un efecto hilarizante en mi ,expresiones como " hola baby whatsapeing" siempre me mataron de la risa
.Pero como diria mi mamá "nunca digas de esta agua no es de beber", la semana pasada mientras esperaba en un bar a una amiga para poder actualizar nuestras vidas , me diriji al mozo de la siguiente manera.
Yo: mmmm err just... i mean estoy esperando un ratito enseguida lo llamo( me di cuenta que esas palabras sonaban muy ajenas en mi y mas aún que el pobre hombre no las iba a entender , pero cuanto mas buscaba las plabras correcta menos las encontraba)
obviamente , a medida escuchaba mi balbuceo spanglishico , la cara del mozo se transformo de sevicial a una pseudo cara de "pobrecita que se pensara que és"
A todo esto mi amiga , que tambien es una profe de inglés se acercaba a mi mesa y me saludo en un "hey there Reich, how r u?"Y con eso el mozo mira para arriba con cara de resignación y nos volvió a preguntar en tucumanos simple que ibamos a tomar, tomo la order y se perdio de vista.Sin duda alguna creo que hubiesemos pasado por turistas britanicas recien bajadas del avion a no ser por el pequeño detalle de tener todo el aspecto andino y una remera que decia Yo amo Tucumán.Como resultado me puse a pensar hasta donde me estoy olvidando mi español y como podria hacer para recuperarlo, asi que escribir en castellano va a ser my new tast ups mi nueva tarea, veremos como resulta.

Saving Lies for ourselves

2008-09-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

Our romantic relationships are seldom what they seem. We all want a relationship that is built on openness, intimacy, and trust, but the truth is, our relationships do not always work that way. More often than not, our intimate relationships involve secrecy and deceit. In fact, if you want to look for deception and betrayal in your own life, the best place to start is close to home. Husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, often lie about their true feelings for each other, the feelings they have for others, and their level of commitment. Indeed, it is safe to say that people save their biggest and most serious lies for those they love.

For better or worse, our romantic relationships are full of paradoxes which we try to overlook, downplay and ignore. For the most part, this strategy works well. Until the day comes when it doesn’t, and with little warning or preparation we have to confront face-on the reality that our close relationships are not exactly what they appear to be.

Eventually, almost everyone will catch a spouse or partner in one of their lies. Inevitably, we have a difficult time coping with what we have learned and dealing with the fact that someone close has betrayed our trust. We do not expect our partners to mislead us, nor do we have insight into how and why deception occurs.

In fairness, it should also be mentioned that it is just as likely that a partner or spouse will catch you in one of your own attempts to deceive. And ironically, we are just as unprepared to deal with this kind of situation.

Ignoring the paradoxes inherent in our romantic relationships turns out to be a costly strategy and most people pay the price for this decision, unexpectedly, and all at once. It’s not so much that coming to terms with the use of deception in romantic relationships will solve all of the problems you are going to encounter, but it will certainty help to reduce the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty that occur when deception eventually comes to light.

When it comes love and romance, most of the things we believe, turn out not to be true. Most people believe that all of their marital or relational problems can be solved through “communication.” We also believe that deception is difficult to achieve, that misleading a partner requires a lot of effort and thought, and that romantic partners can tell when a lover is lying, and so on. None of these widely held beliefs, however, are supported by the evidence. Rather, our romantic relationships are held together by a delicate balance of both candor and deceit. And both are critical to making our intimate relationships work.

Romantic relationships entail two important features which allow deception to flourish: abundant opportunity, as well as the need to deceive. As we get close to another person, we intentionally and unintentionally provide them with a great deal of information about who we are, revealing ourselves through both our words and deeds. Creating this kind of intimacy or shared knowledge is critical, as it serves as the foundation for a lot of important rewards. Through our close relationships, we create gains with respect to our health, wealth, and emotional well-being.

Because relationships provide so many important rewards, it should come as no surprise that people are inclined to view their romantic partners in a positive light. We place a lot of trust in our romantic partners. We think we know them well. But while our trust surely provides us with a sense of security and comfort, it also lays the ground for deceit. For as we trust our partners more, we also become more confident but less accurate at determining when the truth is being told.

Every relevant study attests to the fact that lovers are terrible at telling when their partners are lying. In fact, detecting deception with anyone is difficult to do, but lovers manage to take this general failure to a spectacular low. Again, as we become more confident that we can tell when a lover is lying, the exact opposite turns out to be true. This “truth-bias” or “blind faith” provides the perfect opportunity for romantic partners to engage in deception. After all, who makes a better victim than someone who is eager and willing to trust everything you have to say?

Not only do close relationships create a wonderful opportunity for deception to occur, they also create the need. While romantic relationships offer many rewards, they also tend to be overly constrictive. Most everyone has felt the constraints of a close relationship from time to time; quite simply you are no longer free to do what you want, when you want, and with whom you want. So intimacy provides tremendous rewards, but at an enormous cost – the loss of your freedom and autonomy.

Lying to a romantic partner helps us deal with the constraints that our intimate relationships impose. Quite frankly, deceiving a romantic partner turns out to be the most efficient and effective way of maintaining the rewards we get from our romantic relationships while pursuing extra-relational goals and activities behind a partner’s back.

How do we decide when to lie and when to tell the truth? Well, most of the time we do not intentionally think about misleading our partners. Rather such decisions are governed by our emotions and just seem to happen when the right situation presents itself. Often a sense of excitement, opportunity, and exhilaration can lead us down paths we had no intention of traveling. A sense of fear, loss, and trepidation, on the other hand, prompt us to cover-up what we’ve done and be more conservative in the short-term. Luckily our emotions are very good at reading situations and keeping our deceptive behavior within limits. Our emotions prompt us to regain some of our freedoms while also allowing us to maintain the benefits we get from our intimate relationships.

When you take a step back and put it altogether, the picture that emerges tends to be rather ironic. Because our romantic relationships are so rewarding yet constrictive, we are simultaneously more truthful and more deceptive with those we love. Additionally, we place the most trust in the person who is most likely to deceive us, just as we are most likely to deceive the person who loves and trusts us the most. These are just a few of the paradoxes that emerge when taking a close look at the use of deception in our romantic relationships. Most of what is uncovered runs counter to our most cherished beliefs about love and romance; that is, the idea that complete openness and intimacy are a central and defining feature of being in love.

Initially most people avoid looking for deception by a loved one. But as you begin to examine your own behavior more closely it becomes harder to dismiss the degree to which lies, betrayal, secrecy and deceit are ever present in our close relationships. Hopefully, you will take on a greater appreciation for the complexities of your relationships as well as a richer understanding of what it means to be in love. Regardless of the final outcome, taking a close look at deception in your life will change the way you view yourself and others.

Buenos Aires Players -

2008-07-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Bs. As. Players, pioneers in educational theatre in English in our country, will visit Tucumán for the first time in fifteen years. Join them and enjoy the magic of theatre led by the hand of a team of professionals

Get ready and do not miss this opportunity. Bs. As. Players will be here on August, Monday 25 at Teatro Alberdi!!

Three awesome productions, too good to be missed!!!

Schedule


9.00 a.m.	Magic Seasons (Ages 6-9)
11.00 a.m.	To be or not to be (Adolescents-Adults)
2.30 p.m.	The Sultan of the Thousand nights (Ages 10-13)
4.30 p.m.	Magic Seasons (Ages 6-9)
6.30 p.m.	To be or not to be (Adolescents-Adults)

Fees


$ 10	Until July 4th
$ 11	Until August 5th
$ 12	Until August 24th

$ 13

On spot

Bs. As. Players...A treat for everyone!!

For more information, please contact:


Raquel Soria		Silvia Contino
		4331288
154549631		155418501
bondcharly@gmail.com raquel.soria@gmail.com		silviacontino@hotmail.com

And, of course, you can also visit our website, where you may download all the activities for free!!!
www.thebsasplayers.com

Pads, Paws and Claws

2008-07-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

My cat is a menace. His name is Ñaño. A lovable rogue or a pain in the...neck? He makes a mess and a lot of noise wherever he goes. Today I crawled around on all fours giving the carpet a trim because HE had snagged it - everywhere - because he can. He lies on top of the fridge and gives me a fright when I go into the kitchen. Sometimes he leaps out from under a table as I pass. He tries to trip me up. He bites and scratches. It's true. I'm being ambushed daily by a feline 'Kato' (from Pink Panther films). He waits until I've cleaned out his box and then he goes in and stinks the place out. He runs past the bed, slapping my feet as he goes at 2 o'clock in the morning. He likes treats. I've tried explaining that we all like treats, but he DEMANDS them - and gets them. He breaks things. He got tangled in the blinds and busted them beyond repair. He knocks photographs over as if they were in his way. If I was talking about a human he'd have been out on his ear long ago. But I quite like the wee guy - Ñaño that he is.

Happy birthday Hector!!

2008-07-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

That's a big number

LOVE

That's a big word

I love you

That's the truth

Mechanical Failure!!!

2008-07-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

What is it with me and machines? This computer, for example, has a mind of its own. Anytime I wish to edit a photograph I click on the picture in question, in the file location. Sometimes it will open in Nero PhotoSnap Viewer, but more often than not the computer will make a little ‘beep’ noise and not open the file at all. I think this ‘beep’ is computer talk for ‘get lost, I’m busy’. What I then have to do is open the programme and access the file from there. That’s just a lot of hassle. Other times, on this particular machine, programmes refuse to open. I don’t even get a ‘please wait’ or a ‘not on your nelly’. It just acts as though I never requested to open a programme at all. Meanwhile I’m sitting staring at the screen waiting for something to happen. What a way to pass the hours.
Other machines have it in for me as well. The air-conditioning in my car only ever decides to come on, automatically, in cold weather. What is that all about? I’m driving along, freezing cold and shivering, when if I happen to glance down I notice a wee orange light informing me that the air-con has come on. No wonder I’m cold. I know it’s summer, but this is Scotland and sometimes it’s a bit chilly of a morn.
I don’t know how to work the microwave. I’m sure it picks a different way to operate every time I use it. I might put in the length of time I want to cook something for, and then input the power at which I want it to cook – nothing happens. If I do it the other way around – nothing happens. If I get it to go at all I end up with exploded food. I don’t like that machine and I don’t think it likes me very much.
The video recorder records the wrong channel or the right channel at the wrong time/day. The memory thingy on my radio doesn’t work, so I have to scroll through a million channels before I find something I want to listen to (it could be that it works perfectly well and I don’t know how to operate it). My phone is on ‘silent’ when I don’t want it to be, and on ‘loud’ when I wish it would be silent.
I take solace in the fact that I know of other people who have had problems with ‘simple’ machinery. A friend recently burnt his toast. Not only was his toast burnt but the toaster he was burning it in was melted. The smoke set off the fire alarm (at least one machine was working properly) and the building he works in was evacuated. Three truck loads of firemen attended the toast fire. There were no casualties apart from one toaster and a little dented ego.
I may suffer a form of machine paranoia, but I don’t think so and I don’t care what you’ve heard from my friends . None of it is true.

We are a market

2008-07-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

We are a market

Fernanda is happy with her new life.
Raquel is looking for a new flat and she misses her nieces.
Pato send mails that nobody understands.
Raquel gets to a plane not very convinced about what she is doing.
Td make a porro and watch the day bemoces night.
Gerardo mixes and mixes some sounds and lyrics.
Nazaret puts a mirror under the bed.
Elena thinks that she knows what is going on.
Silvia laughts at her kid´s adventures.
Luisa stands up with an incredible pair og boots.
Belen wakes up in a good humor.
Monica says no to everything .
Raquel falls in love with Pablo and Pablo falls in love with Raquel.

2008-06-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

roll the bar
open the jar
raise the roof
stand aloof!

hold the wheel
spin the see
turn the real
become a tree!

tip the wagon
circle the door
smoke the dragon
feed the poor!

sing to the river
dance for the sun
and return to the giver
all that you've won!

A POEM FOR THE NEW CLEAR;

2008-05-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

Rough, gruff and burly,
Dancing leaves, fox & deer;
Warm angles in the early.
Nine muses grew my eyes
And long’d to eat my art,
While 13 angels drank my bread
And sang into my heart:
'Whisky’s wise which way
The sky is, and brandy's love
Is rare, and there is new wine
Wherever the vine is
Intertwined in your hair.

This year so far.

2008-05-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

I thought everything would be different this year.However it is pretty much the same as last year.I have to keep with my studyings, language classes are still something I have to learn to cope with, my work is a shitty as usual, I have to still wait to get marry,I am still living with my mother and finally it seems that as last year i will spend most of my hours , weeks and months in front of this computer doing homework and writing here,my blog.
My classmastes are quite different this year , most of them are just like me.No one is marry,or have children or have BIG responsabilities with anyone else but with themselves which makes things easily to share.I dont want to mean that my former classmates were too different but i felt that i didnt fit with them.I met many of my new classmates when I was still at university so in the group there is no such a "she is from here or from there thing".We are just us. Anyway.Another thing which is quite positive now is that as i am the one have have lots of experience with the subject they are always asking me how to do things, which makes me feel really helpful and not usefull.

monadas

2008-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Deshumanization in Brave New World.

2008-02-23T02:54:00.000-08:00

Human beings are a the product og their own time and every man is defined by the culture he/she has been raised.This is vividly shown in the novel written by Aldous Huxley Brave New World , where eh depics a society in wich people are contioned in their relationships , alienated with drugs and devoid of feelings such as love and sorrow in order to support the utopic stable State.
In Huxley ideal society a pre-conditioning system emerges as the main social tool to help the State to support its stability.By using this method people are deprived of one of the most important characteristics of human condition, that is the inner capacity of sociability.As people are no longer born but decanted, with such technological intervention in the human conception, the primary social cell in society, which is family ,and all the emotional bounds that it involves disappear.What is left are inviduals without individualities, incapable of establishing social connections with each other and only allowed to have superficial ans short-term relationships.
In this society, deshumanization is also achieved by means of soma,which is presented as the underlying force that help to maintain the cate social system as well as its stability.This drug is the key element for keeping the balance in this happy and stable society.It provides people with an artificial perception of a state of happiness, whenever they are invaded with feelings thata re fundamentally human such as anger or anguish.This substance is suppplied by the State to keep running the social control.People are not permitted to experience suffering because if they do so, citizens will feel compelled to seek and fight for happiness, which is not convenient for the state.
it is important to undertand that Brave New World is not simply a warning about what would happen to society if things go wrong but also a satire to modern consuming societies, where individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs and success as econimicgrowth and prosperity.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

2008-02-15T16:19:00.000-08:00

After midnight had played her drunken fingers
Down the broken glass of my spine
I fell into a deep sleep
And dreamt that I came into a mirrored room
Where I saw a tangled heap of splintered bones
Sprawled out across the floor. I tried to turn away,
But the door shut behind me and I was locked inside.
I looked around but could only see myself
And the bones reflected from every angle
Against the mirrored walls. I began to panic,
Blistering goblets of sweat broke out over my face
And I paced about on my toes
Being very careful not to step on any of the bones.
Suddenly the bones began to stir and rustle and
I stood still as a ghost watching to see what was going to happen: First I heard the sound of an engine igniting
Then the lights went out and my heart almost ceased to beat
I stood motionless listening to the sound of the splintered
Bones rustling and stirring, then the sound of water pouring And there was loud thunder and howling gusts of wind
My brain began to spin and reel and my entire body shook violently;
At last, expecting that I would immediately wake up, I fainted.

Values

2008-02-09T03:13:00.000-08:00

Values

A new civilization is always been made. The most important question we can ask , is whether there is any permanent standard by which w can compare one civilization with another, and by which we can make some guess at the improvement or decline of our own. We have to admit , in comparing one civilization with another , and in capering the different stages of our own , that no society and no one age of it realizes all the values of civilization, not all these values may be compatible with each other: what is at least as certain is that in realizing some we lose the appreciation of others. Values are treated differently by Huxley , Stevenson and Golding in their books Brave new world, Dr .Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Lord of the flies.

It is important to understand that Brave new world ,is not simple a warning about what could happen to society if things go wrong, it is also a satire of our own society in which we exist today.

While the attitude and behavior of the world state citizens at first appear bizarre ,cruel or scandalous many clues point to the conclusion that the world State is simple an extreme , but logically developed ,version of our society economic values , in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs , and success as a society is equated with economic growth and prosperity.

In the Victorian Society the scale of values was measured differently. For the character in Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, preserving one’s reputation emerges as all important .The prevalence of this value system is evident in the way that upright men such as Utterson and Einfeld avoid gossip at all cost .Similarly, when Utterson suspects Jekyll first of being blackmailed and then of sheltering Hyde from the police, he does not make his suspicious know: part of being Jekyll good friend is a willingness to keep his secret and not to ruin his respectability. The importance of reputation also reflects the importance of appearance, facades and surfaces which often hide a sordid underside.

Lord of the flies dramatizes the conflict between the civilizing instinct and the barbarizing instinct that exist in all human beings. The choices Golding makes in the novel are designed to emphasize the struggle between many elements in the society, which include moral and social values , law , and culture and the chaotic element of humanity´s savage animal instincts, which includes anarchy, bloodlust, the greed for power, amorality, selfishness and violence. IN the novel, it is portrayed the rise and swift fall of an isolated , make shift civilization which is torn to pieces by the savage instincts of those who comprise it.

In all these books , each writer tries to deal with the flaws of values in the society pictured in the books, leaving us the reflection that we should try to improve it in this respect of the other, where excess of defect is evident ; we must try at the same time to embrace so much in our own view ,that we may avoid , in putting one thing right, putting something else wrong.

Good and Evil in Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Lord of the flies

2008-01-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

Good and Evil

Although Louis Stevenson and William Holding were not contemporary, they were both deeply engaged to what gives people their human condition, that is awareness. The mysterious mental state that enables human beings to distinguish between good and evil. In the books The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The lord of the flies this duality is represented by themes like civilization in contrast to savagery and the duality on human nature.

The central concern of the Lord of the flies is the conflict between two competing instincts or impulses that defy each other within all human beings. The instincts to live according social rules the moral commands and the worth of team work against the instincts of individualism and superiority over others. This conflict is expressed throughout the novel in a number of ways but the most important one is Golding´s association of civilization with good and instincts of savagery with evil.Theses two confronting issues are the main concern in the novel explored through the metamorphosis of civilized young English boys into brutal, barbaric and wild creatures as they get used to living in the wilderness. This main conflict is represented in the novel by two polar characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership,, and Jack , the antagonist, who represents savagery and greed of power. With these two characters Golding conveys the idea of the novel, the innate feelings of evil and goodness in all human beings.

Duality of this kind is also dealt with in Stevenson work. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde centers upon the idea of humanity as dual in nature. By means of Jekyll as the protagonist ,Stevenson asserts that “man is not truly one, but two” and he imagines the human soul as a battle between good and evil struggling for mastery .In his research to eliminate the evil part of human soul , Jekyll invents a potion. Unfortunately, once released, Hyde takes over until Jekyll ceases to exist. Mr. Hyde , the antagonist, once free of the tentative control by civilization, law and conscience ,conducts himself according to instincts rather than reason .In the end ,Stevenson leaves open the question if human nature consists of evil and virtue, or if it is just human inner animal and the control that civilization imposes over them.

The search of what makes us human, has been the main concern of people since the beginning of times. And these two outstanding writers make their contribution to lead us to reflect on this matter as we enjoy their novels

Catrina and El niño both danderous desasters

2007-12-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

Ramiro he is a nice boy, hardly ever cries.

Well this is the story,my mother has a digital cam, she usually does not lend it to me, under the argument that i am n ot reliable,on the contrary she lends it to my niece who is fond on taking photos, can u believe it? anyway here some photos i took it this morning wile my mother was away :P

This part of my life is called " the feeder"

2007-11-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

The feeder broke into my life,my flesh,my dreams and hopes.
The feeder does not respect my youth,my early 30 years old.
The feeder attacts silently,without any trace of mercy.
The feeder does not want to come to an agreement.
It wants everything i have.
The feeder needs me.My life is its life.
My future is its end.
My body is its home and food.
My strenght is its source of strenght.
The light I shine ,the feeder turns into dark.
It does not let me run.It will run with me.
It has tied my hands, my legs and my soul to its existence.
My agility has begun to disappear,
the feeder ate it.
The feeder wakes me up everyday.
The effort I make stand up shows me its pressure.
The feeder grows stronger and stonger.
I am afraid.

Party Graduation

2007-11-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Coming to an end!!!

2007-11-15T03:32:00.000-08:00

Dear You:
Hey there boy, how r u?it´s been a microsecond since i last chatted with u but it´s been a century for me.I think that this reaction you provoke in me is affecting my life deeply.you may wonder how? well,let me describe a day with u in my head.The day is divided in 5 different parts and each part has its own particularity.
First parts is called rejection.
I wake up, to realised that instead of lying beside you in my bed , as i did while dreaming , the person is just the guy who is real for me now.I get up,look at him,he is deeply asleep. Inmediately I rmember u, so I rush to the pc connec to my msn to discover that my anxiety falls down when u r not there.So i go back to bed , and try to sleep whiout any success because the sensation of your presence invaded my senses compelled me to imagine you and me or maybe me and you,after 5 minutes, you again there torturing my conciousness.Again you are there ,challenging my present life, my moral values, my loyalty, my honesty.I fight against you again and again.There you stand up, with a pleasand smile of triumph because you have defeated me once more.
The second part starts is called my sIave mind at ur service
I surrender to the pleasure that gives me just the remote idea of thinking us together.So i do it, Firstly I play with the hope of having your mouth near me.7868957649789877098068998609

9678 ways of kissing u assault my desire to feel your lips.Then I consider that it would be even better just to let u do that job.So 378959876957698760987098747578488494949 ways of how you would kiss me,keep me alert,some of them are so vivid that i can nearly smell the scent of your hair.

After that i have breakfast, my bf is in front of me , his lips move fast , but i cant make sense of what he is saying.i am in other place, in England.As the pc is still on and you r still off , i look for ur pics, I cant believe how gorgeous you are.Where have you been all my life?In your site in facebook, there are many girls who have left you some messages, so i wonder"if he is just playing with me? is he is the same with every single girl? if it is the product of his coming back to virginity?the third part is coming
This part of the day is called insecurity
Insecurity is present,I come to the reality that i am not pretty, and far away of being beautiful,so i dont want to make so much fuss about him, besides the most possible situation to happen is that he will be disapointted of me when he sees me,´cos there he will get convinced that i am not what he thinks i was.so we will meet and then he will go with another girl.I may seem negative,but he is soo much out off my league that it is better to have that clear in mind.Another part is coming.
This part is called coming to life.
He is there,and what is more he is there wanting to speak with me.Wow , i dont know why he makes me feel so different.he does not say much, tough i like him.He starts with the lovely dreams he make me get into.WE chat, we,laugh, , he seemed very interested in me. wow i cant believe it ,ok,maybe i can be nice, maybe just maybe i am not monster, just a simple regular girl, NIce guys are intered in regular girl sometimes. I am happy and all the doubts about him are fading away. I enjoy as much as I can.and as long as it lasts.

This part is called consequences
He has been there , in mind thought too long,.It is too late for everything.I can even remember what my mother asked me to do. was it to buy sght or to do stgh? I dont know.I was supposed to cook for the family.I have no time for that, better order prepared dinner.My siter is angry,she mentions sght connected to the pc.I dont care. It is worth for me.everything is a mess but for the first tim in years i dont panic.I feel cool, I feel good.
Maybe it is just an illusion that only comes to life when i want to,in my mind , in my spirit.Whatever happens, from now on, I will just enjoy it, enjoy the privilege i have of having made contact with such a nice and caring person like you.
Thank you and Happy New Year.

2007-10-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

sigh. this few days i wasn't in a good mood.
don't know why! I just hate that feeling.
I really feel that i've lost alot of things.
This world to me is no longer important anymore.
even i got back my love, i still feel i shouldn't be
in this world. I don't deserve being happy !
I been thinking, i just make alot of them down.
don't know why am i having all this thinking !
i been staying at home rotting ,
just to let myself think , whats wrong!
but the more i stay at home, the more sad i'll be.
sigh D:
& baby sorry for saying any thing that hurt you !
i really feel so down. D':
I miss you real much.

Out the blue!!

2007-09-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

I have always been in love with carr. The first time I drive was at the age od 11, yes you had read correctly at 11!My fathers used to leave the caR park in the street, and I usually asked him to let me the keys to listen some music in his stereo.In that way, at first I dared to stated the car, but one day I was fed that with that routine and I decided to go even further.I started , then put the first gear,and accelerated it!It was factastic!! I drove it for 2 metres long!My father did not even realised that I had moved the car from where he has left it.Next time I aeventured to go a little bit further,untill one day my father got up earlier from his nap and went to looked for me.To his big surprise neither the car nor me were in the park place.He went mad, desperately went inside my house yiellling like a mad cow to look for my mother.Both went to ask the next door neighboud some information where I was.Don Pedro ,a 70 years old man told them that I was round the corner in the car, they felt relief.
I don not htink I will always forget my father face when he approached to the car t in which I was listening music.It was not anger, but sublime surprise.I was not punished, on the contrary, my parent decided that it was high time for em to learn to drive.
My desesperation was so huge that I learnt it in 3 weeks.But I got my license only five years after.

During my 20´s many were the places a drove to!I remember when Luis Miguel went to give a concert to Salta.Four friends and me took the opportunity to travel together to that city.

Curently I do not have a car,but maybe At the end of the year I could change that!

Saturday Night Live!!!

2007-09-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

WWWWooooWWWW!!!! IT was me again,or better to say the one I used to be a long time ago. It is funny to see how life changes a person in many different ways.Whenever I look back to see the way I was,i am surprise how I have changed.When I was younger thre was no weekend that I did not take advantage from.I usually went to meetings parties and concerts .I was young and I wanted to live my life fully.I was a risk taker, but i guess that time changes everything.I have become more responsable, I can see that when I choose to stay at home studying instead of going out on a saturday night.Time is cruel.Fortunately from time to time I forget about everything ,I let myself to enjoy life. Last saturday was just superb!First,I celebrated the student´s day with my students, they were very surprised when I gave them a big cake.I could not have imagined the effect it had ,that little detail, it was a very emotive moment.They were happy to know that I took my time to prepapre something forthem. They could not stop repeating "thank you teacher".But on the top of that was Molotov ´s concert.The first time I heard about them was by my sister Patricia,I was inmediately charmed by the band.Some of the lyrics they sing are s shout demanding more social equality!The stablishment is always criticised .So afther work I went home to get ready .As i knew that 3 bands were going to be before their show, I did not actully hurry.I took my time to relax and while taking a shower .My boyfriends started knocking my bathroom´s door madly saying"gordaaaaaaaa!!!! hurry up they are already on the stage!!!!As i live a block from where the concer was taking place, the sounds and music can be heard from the backyard og my house.So in no time I dried, put my cloth on, combed my hair,pu some make up,and run desperately to the stadium.I have never run in that way in my life.Not even when I am late for work!One there the music displayed its energy!I felt as I were 14 again.I went to the front part inmediately,despite my boyfriend´s pleading to stay at the back!! In that part, I sang, danced, and jump up and down without paying attention to anything else but my urgent desire to free myself from everything!!

Although the videos are not of a good quality,it can be seen the energy people had .

Unfortunately, the concert lasted only an hour and a half.When we were reaching the climax with the one of their best songs "Gimmi da power", they ended it abruptably!I did not want to believe it!I stayed there for 20 minutes more hoping thyem to return to the stage!Nothing happened!So we went back home ,where there was my mother making fun on our expenses saying that we were robbed in the concert!That only true rockers as Charly Garcia has a 3hour shows!

I did not pay attention to her empty of sense words.I remembered that I had been invited to a party of one of my collegues who is about to go to France.There we went! My friends Mariela and Lorena were waiting for me!We really had and incredible funny party! I knew some of the people there.

Love was on my side once more time.

I got money,
I got my friends,
I got my love,
I could not ask for anything more!

Food for Thought on Global Warming

2007-09-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

Published on Saturday, February 17, 2007 by the Huffington Post

Food for Thought on Global Warming

by Bruce Friedrich

Despite the wave of frigid air that swept in with the new year, 2006 was the warmest year on record in the United States. The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scien tific panel that met recently to discuss global warming, reported that climate change is "very likely" caused by human activities, including burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.

The IPCC predicts that temperatures might increase by as much as 7.2°F and sea levels may rise by 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century.

It's a stark message. We've obviously messed up our planet?scientists foresee floods, melting ice caps, devastating droughts, and stronger hurricanes and tropical storms. Wildlife will struggle to survive. It's not something to be proud of. But then, just when it seems like the best option would be to leap off the nearest melting iceberg, the panel reassures us that global warming could be substantially blunted if people would take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gases.

Here's what they didn't explain: Switching to a vegan diet is a simple, effective way to shrink greenhouse gas emissions.

The digestive processes of the billions of animals raised to become sandwiches and snacks each year, as well as the 87,000 pounds of excrement that they produce every second, release enormous amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

A November 2006 report published by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions?18 percent?than transportation. The FAO also reported that the livestock industry is responsible for 37 percent of anthropogenic (generated by human activity) methane and 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide, both of which have a higher "global warming potential" than carbon dioxide. The FAO also blamed the livestock sector for heavy deforestation, and according to the World Resources Institute, deforestation is responsible for approximately 20 percent of all global warming emissions.

The FAO report followed an April 2006 study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago, who compared the amount of fossil fuel necessary to produce various foods, taking into account the fuel needed to run machinery, provide food for animals and irrigate crops. They found that the typical U.S. meat-eater is responsible for nearly 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide per person per year than a vegan (pure vegetarian), simply because of the difference in food choices. An American Journal of Clinical Nutrition report by David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel indicated that i t takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make a calorie of animal protein as it does to make a calorie of plant protein.

What is the "payoff" for polluting the planet and using fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow? Greasy chicken nuggets and hamburgers. In other words, cholesterol medication, doctor visits and Weight Watchers meetings.

I may not be a scientist, but I think the answer is obvious: Having meat to eat is not worth changing the world's climate, killing animals?both pigs and polar bears?and ourselves.

Check out PETA's 30-day VegPledge, with recipes and transitional information, at www.GoVeg.com.

Bruce Friedrich is vice-president in charge of international grassroots campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal rights organization, with more than 1.6 million members and supporters. Before joining PETA more than 10 years ago, Bruce spent six years running a shelter for homeless families and the largest soup kitchen in Washington, D.C., as well as leading demonstrations on behalf of unions, a living wage, and other causes. He has been a progressive activist for more than 20 years.

Published on Friday, February 16, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

Date:,2007

Name:Soria,Raquel

English Language IV

Reading report

Tittle: Food for Thought on Global Warming

Source:CommonDreams.org

Date of publication: Published on Friday, February 16, 2007

Vocabulary:

frigid Show phonetics
adjective
1 SEX not enjoying sexual activity, usually said about a woman

2 UNFRIENDLY LITERARY not friendly or emotional

stark¹
adjective
1 CLEAR unpleasantly clear and obvious
His death is a stark warning to other people about the dangers of drugs.

2 stark difference/contrast a total difference
Jerry is very lazy, in stark contrast to his sister who works very hard.

3 PLAIN with a very plain and simple appearance and not very attractive
a stark, snowy landscape

vegan
noun [C]
someone who does not eat meat, fish, eggs, milk, or cheese

Summary

Global warming has caused ecological disaster over the world during the last 2 years, like floods,tropical storms and hurricanes amog others.People activities have contributed to the climate change.Many are the preventing actions that people should start to adop, like reducing the carbon dioxine emissions,cutting forrest etc.But according to author of this article,by just changing eating habit al over the world , from meat eater to vegan , people could lower the production of gases that raise the temperatures every year. He supports the theory that livestock production and all its derivates like snacks ,emit such a huge among of gases that by changing eating habits people could contribute to reduce the factor that are causing the Global Warming Issue.

Personal reaction:

Human beings are the only animals in nature who have the unique characteristic of being able to adapt themselves to any cirtunstance in life.As Viktor Frank,the Psychologist who created the logo- therapy, in his book called "In search of the sense" describes that he could experienced during a period he spent in a concentration camp in Poland during the War World II, that human beings have in capacity to adapt to any environmetn , hostile or not.He highlights that only there under such infrahuman condition lot of myths just faded away, for instance the common belief that people need a certain amount of sleeping hour to be able to exist, for him was a theory that was broken by that fact during years he could only sleep 4 or 3 hours a day.

Taking Frank ´s line of thoughts i consider that people could change their eating habits if this means a way to help the enviroment to survive.But the question here would be; how far are we from making this to happen?How much time do we need to be conciuous about? and How willing are we to carry out with this sacrify?.

Chilhood music

2007-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

My father was very fond of music.I remember when i was a child there was always some music on the air.Any kind of music.My parent used to get up at 8:00 at weekends and turned on the radio LV12 which broadcasted folk music especially on sundays morning.While growing up, I discovered my own music.Luis Miguel was a must for me and my sister Patricia.We would spend hours and hours listening his records,analysing all the lyrics, and dreaming to meet him someday.For years and years we collect every single photograph or interview where he appearded.We had them in especial folders.My mother should have invest a lot of money in our hobby.When the time came we went to see his 2 movies first to the cimena and then we simply bought them.It was wonderful to spend time imagining dialogues and posibles questions u would ask him.Of he was also present in our dreams and in our journals. The first time i saw him was when i was 10, too young to go to a concert my father said.Our opportunity played hard to come for 4 years. When I was 14 he came to Tucuman.I remember it was near my birthday, our birthday, so we bought the tickets with the money my granmother gave us a month in advance.By that time he was intruducing boleros ni his reperuour.The night of the concert was just superb,many years had passed, he looked a little olders than in the photographs ,in amoment i dithered whether it was him or another person , untill he began to sing.
The girls there were frantic, they yealled madly all the time.For a moment i could not heard his voice.Then they calmed down.That night he sang beautifully,although there were hundreds of girls I felt that he sang only to me.

Cyber love or Cyber confusion?

2007-09-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Well this is the story. I have friend call XXXX .She is 27 years old.Never been kissed or touch in her life.She has started thinking that life has nothing important.The guys issued has turned into a major problem in her life.Her self.steem regarding man is very low.I really dont know what is happening to the guy nowadays, she is nice and pretty.Her fears towards men has prevented her from stablish a real relationship.Recently she has met a guy from Ireland, very handsome one, if i have to admit it.The problem now is that she believes she has fallen in love with him.And the fact that he is 475834593478695870965780965869754362354365736573 kms away from here is just a detail for her.Her life is tarting to go around this guy who has a real life in Ireland,who has not stop living as she has.She doesnt go out , to open the possibilities to meet others men.Sometimes she has asked me to say lies to XXX in order to make him jealous.I dont know how tyo help her, I have told her 5786894685 of times that there is no chances to make it rea but she seems not to pay any attention to me.Her life is passing and she is only attached to an illusion.I dont know what to do!

What makes an ideal holidays?

2007-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

My ideal holidays are very simple indeed.I dont want to travel abroad,although i dont dislike the idea.I would like to stay in one peacful place , surrounded by nature, without any trace of civilization near me.Where the only thing to worry about is the fact of not doing anything at all.maybe my family could come with me but just for a couple of days(they are noisy guys).The presence of my boyfriend is a must.A couple of years ago I had a holidays just like the one i am describing here.It took place in Lara which is located in Taki del valle departtament,it is a place not easy to access but the effort is worth.We had to take all the supplies with us, from water to soap.I went there with 3 friends.We stayed in my grand mother´s house for almost a month.
At the beggining it was difficult to get accoustumed to.The living habits there are so much different fron the ones in the city.To begin with , the day starts with the sunlight more or less at 5:30 and it ends at 7:00 in the afternoon.The only means of communication were a radio and our elular phones.The funny thing regardinbg our celular phones was the fact that we had to climb a little mountain to get the signal to get in touch with civilization.So as the effort was too much we only tried once.Thre we spent 34 days.We walked for hours, talk endessly and share a lot.

The mistakes I shall try not to make when I become a parent

2007-09-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

Being a parent is a difficult, full time job .And what is worst there is no book or furtther instruction to let a person to procede correctly to fullfil this task.I think that a person should be prepare for that job in order not to commit mistakes that will remain forvever in the child ´s life.I think that my parents did what they could , especially my mother, and ia am very thankfull for every minute she dedicated to my life and my sister´s.On the contrary my father only could hide behind the justification that he had never been ready to be father of fouir girls.
So I guess that to begin with i would wish to have a child. Then love the baby.
One important aspect that i would take into account is communication. Sometimes the generation gap could become a drawback between parent and children.I remenber when i was a child that there were things that i was not supposed to do or say, yet never knew that reasons.Later on when completely grown up i found out the reasons.

Wedding

2007-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last friday.
My boyfriend´s best friend wedding.
I,
anxious.
Lots of friends,
Chinese dress,
wonderful idea.
Attention on me,
on my dress.
Religion presence,
wise words spoken.
happines
bride in white pregnant
they are happy.
me too,
no cars available,
nice place for a party.
I am happy,
I feel happy,
He told me I am beautiful
for the first time,
I believe him.
Food,
more food,
wine,
chanpagne,
beer,
music,
lights
the groom and the bride dance,
me too
more beer
fenet,
the boys are dunk,
dance,
we dance,
love is around,
misunderstanding,
he is mad,
they too,
as well as me.
I ,
no attention.
everything ok now,
we,
they ,
all of us
dance,
laught,
share,
love.

Ramiro welcome to the family.

2007-09-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hey beautifil boy it is me you aunt!! Raquel.Your mother is my little sister. I was the one who used to take care of her when she was a baby,and I WILL DO THE SAME FOR YOU.Unfortunately , yesterday I could not be there when you were delivered.I really wanted to hear your fisrt cry but in this world, as you will discover, there are other responsabilities, jobs they are called.But I am sure yu remember me.I carried you yesterday afternoon when you were crying then I fed you.Well Itis Ok if you can not remember me yet,I understand you.There were many people there.Soon you will be at home with us.I have already made all the preparations in your room.You know, your room used to be our refuge when your we were children,where your bed is now there was a pink table with little chairs around, after school that was the place where we did our homework.If that room could talk,it would tell all the fights, the plays that it witnessed.But it is yours now,and i hope you could enjoy it as much as we did.
Yesterday Your mother told me how happy she was for having you here with her and I have to admit that you made me very happy too.
Believe it or not but you look like your aunt Silvia when she was born,hey dont make that face, your aunt was a beautiful baby.Talking about her, she sometimes seems tobe a little crazy so dont panic at her presence, once you get to know her deeper ,you can discover that she is even craziest that you thought she would be .It is a jocke , she is a kind person ,I love her.Then you aunt Patricia,is relly fun.When we were children we used to fight a lot.Every single day.One day she took one of my tooth out,that was very paintful, but funny.A week later I took revenge by letting a big spider on her bed.She has a fobia to spiders. She went crazy and run desperately away the house.It was hilarious to see her running that way.Hey you didnt listen that from me.
Your grandma is really cool.She is the best mother in the world.She is a teacher so maybe it could be of great help when you will attend to a place that is called school.She was my teacher when i was 7,and became my teacher for the rest of my life.The school is fine depending on the viewpoint,you can make a lot of friends there and also you have to study a lot.I´ll tell you what "to study means" later.Your cousin Maira may inform you about that.She is 2 years old.She is vey naughty .With her you can have a lot of good time.She has been waiting for you since a long time.She says you are her baby.Dont worry she will help you a lot.She goes to school every day.
Hey dont fall asleep .I Have plenty of things to tell you.ohh Ok sweet dreams

Diabetes

2007-08-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard about this illness was when I was 8 .My father was diagnosed with diabetes at 30. I remember how he suffered in those days.And the sufferring was even bigger because he had to restrict what was of big importance to him "The Food".He was raised with the mentality that people should live to eat and not eat to live.So when he was asked to go under a diet he just became frantic.
His doctor warned him to control it or the consequences could be dire — he could end up blind or lose a leg. His kidneys could fail.
Diabetes affects the sugar level in person´s body and the psychological mental state too.A diet for people with this ill is based on a reduced amount of carbohydrate.And they should avoid any kind a sugar excess.
Unfortunately, that was too much much for my poor father,he could not control himself as far as food was concerned,he ate everything he could, then he faced the crisis of having his body infected with high sugar level.
Even his personality changed completely.He became a child who went furious whenever his wife or children encouraged him to stop eating and to stat a diet.He became jealous, evil and greed .As controlling his body reaction to sugar was a lost fight sooner he got inmersed in a deep,unbearable depression. It affected him in such a way that in a matter of 10 years he lost his job.Having no job made it even worst, just like lost sheep he found refuge in alcohol and gambling.This person was not the one who used to take care of me anymore, he was somebody else .Aperson who gambled 3 cars , a house, who drank my schoolar tuition every month.
He maintained this behaviour for years and years, even after he was kicked off my house, even after he lost eeverything,even after 3 hearts attacks and a close encounter to death.Last year he lost his leg, but all the same he keeps his evil habits against himself.
The last thing I knew was that he was trying to defeat his addiction of alcohol.I whish he could do it.All the same it is too late.

2007-08-31T05:04:00.001-07:00

After standing in line behind a lady, with a 16 year old child, at a store, in a line clearly labeled 20 items or less, and her basket easily exceeding 40 items, I couldn't help but think: What kind of honesty is this lady teaching her children? Then as I got into the parking lot, and started noticing people driving the wrong way up the parking lanes, people not using their turn indicators, I again thought what are these people teaching their children?? What kind of community are we going to have in this next generation, after their parents have taught them not to follow any rules, not to abide by any laws, and how to live off the welfare system?

Reminds me of an old quote: "What kind of world would this world be, if everyone in it were just like me?"

Kind of scary huh?

A Meaningful Poem

2007-08-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Forget his name

Forget his face

Forget his kiss

His warm entrance

Forget the love that you one knew

Remember he has someone new

Forget him when he played your song

Remember when you cry all night long

Forget how close you once were

Remember he has chosen her

Forget how you memorized his walk

Forget the way he used to talk

Forget the things he used to say

Remember he has gone away

Forget his laugh forget his grin

Forget the dimples on his chin

Forget the way he held you tight

Remember he’s with her tonight

Forget the time that went so fast

Forget the love that moved, its the past

Forget he say he’ll leave you never

Remember he’s gone forever.

Oh noooo not to the dentist again!!

2007-08-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Have you been in the dentist lately? No? Well I have.

I have to admit that I am one of those people who stars shivering just at hearing the dentist´s drilling run.Yes , I am a coward.The heart beats get to a fast extremely accelerated pace at their presence. The sweating wet my soul every time I have to see a dentist.Since I was 10, which was my first encounter with an especimen of these uncercoverd devils, paying a visit to a dentist has been a barrier to overcome in my life.

Last week I went to see a doctor because I wanted to have a cleaning in my mouth,while waiting, I could hear the other patient´suffering every time the drill did its job.I started to get nervous and anxious but on the point when I was standing up to run away from the satanic place, the door opened and he appeared saying " Raquel ,Your turn".I wanted to cry inside me this is is what happened:

Me : Hi. Dr. Hyde?

Dentist: So, what's seems to be the problem today?

Me : Well, I just came in for a check up and a dental cleaning.

Dentist: Hum. Open up. Let's take a look . . .

Me: Okay. Uh . . .

Dentist: Hummmm. [Humm? Uh?] Wow! I've never seen one like THIS before. Let me try this.

Me: Uhhh . . . Ouhhhh [Raquel screaming in pain . . .]

Dentist: Well, besides a lot of plaque buildup, there is a major cavity in one of your wisdom teeth. Hasn't this given you any trouble?

Me: Well, the tooth has been bothering me, and it sometimes hurts when I drink something cold. Does it look that bad?

Dentist: Well, we're going to remove the decay, and then we'll either put a filling in, or if the decay is extensive, we can't repair it, we might have to put a crown on your tooth. Or as a last resort, we may have to extract the tooth.

Me: Uh, well, that sounds painful!

Dentist: Don't worry. I've done this . . . once before. [Huh?] Nah, just relax.

Me: Wait! Aren't you suppose to give me something to prevent the pain?

Dentist: Uh, chicken. Oh yeah. I almost forgot. We can either use a anesthetic or . . . laughing gas. . . to minimize the discomfort you might feel. Or you can just grin and bear it.

Me: Nah, Nah, nah! Put me under! [I thought so.] I can't stand pain, and I'd rather not be aware of what's going on. And, if I need a filling, can I get one that looks like my other teeth?

Dentist: No, I am not going to use that if it is not necessary.I wont hurt trust me. If we can save the tooth with a filling.It'll probably last longer.

Me: Okay, well whatever. Let's get it over with.

After 40 minutes of pain I was realeased to go home. I could not sleep that night and what is worst I have to see him again next week.Grrrrr

La Tragedia Educativa - Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry

2007-08-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

Conference report

In his conference the educative tragedy, he presents the Bottom of Economic Culture, prestigious the educational and thinking Argentinean analyzes the most serious risk to than our society is exposed today: the one to despise the knowledge

In his opening speech to an audience of almost a hundred participants.He is not uncertain. The future of the general education in our country it is outlined tragic. According to him, today we live the slow agony on the knowledge and education.

It opposes the results of the systematic national evaluations of the secondary students with the diagnoses of the students who concluded the average education in the decade of the 70. There a maintained diminution of the knowledge reached in relation to the preceding generations is demonstrated. "In the area of the functions logical-mathematics - he mentions is verified that in the decade of the 70, 70% of the evaluated young people obtained an acceptable level whereas, at the beginning of the 90, only makes the 18 percent."

Perhaps but the data more surprising than throws the evaluations of the Ministry of Education in the students on the verge of finalizing the secondary one is that a great difference of academic quality between the state school and the private one does not exist.

The students of private schools surpass in academic yield - in language and mathematics only in a 10% to those of state management, a percentage not only little significant, maintains Etcheverry, but much smaller to the one than they suppose the parents who, protected in deprived schools, create to protect their children of the general crisis of the education.

And it goes more ': only 3 of each 10 students on the verge of finalizing the secondary one, indifferently of which he is private or state his education - according to the results of the operative national of 1997 evaluation -, can order historical personages chronological (for example: Napoleón, Jesus Christ ).
Etcheverry- assures is not an exclusive phenomenon of our country, "our great problem is that we do not have reserves for the future.
"I believe that the first step is to understand the real dimension of the problem, so that the society everything demands to the leaders a greater investment in education and that we leave that hypocritical position to assure that yes he concerns the knowledge when actually we demonstrated the opposite", says Etcheverry, that in addition it warns on the damage that the social iniquidad like determining factor of impediment produces so that the sectors more destitutes accede to the education.

He stablish that the society does not value the knowledge. Signs of this are the educational repayment, the little reading… Another signal is that there is a conviction that the school plays a secondary role in the life of the people. There is a clear interest of the parents by the profit, the obtaining of the certificates that testify that their children have knowledge, but is no support to the effort that leads to the knowledge.
On the one hand, we say to take care of the demands of that market, but, by the other, the external indicators of the educative status are privileged: the emphasis in the English, the computation, the field of sports is put. It is necessary to worry more because the boys know to read and to write well, because they can be expressed correctly. The evaluations demonstrate that the boys when finishing the average education do not reach these objectives. And it is not another thing that this what the labor market demands, and always demanded.

- It thinks that an inclusive school is possible, solid in all the discipline.It seems to him that we would have to return to make a contract with the school in which we specify what is what we want. And between the things that we must want, it is not that so ample thing, but good bases in the tools to accede to the knowledge: mathematics, language, history, philosophy, continue being the central elements to accede to the knowledge.

He thinks that there is much of frivolity the own parents.Without a doubt, and that is in the same society. The school is being put under the fashions and is in danger to weaken its reason of being: this idea that the school must be amused, that the boys must also entertain themselves, is letting of side the necessary cult of the required effort to learn. We know that to learn it is a work, that is not easy and requires discipline. And that idea is being eclipsada by a tendency to the diversion.
He returns to the idea that the knowledge is devaluated, and responds to that the attention is in the social expectations. We want, like in the other spheres of our life, the success economic, fast and easy. And that is translated in the education: that idea of the speed and of which there is to learn the useful thing. Then we do not take care of the process, we did not look for that diversity of points of view, that enrichment of the vision of the complexity of the world, because we did not consider it important.

The use of the technology in the school would have to be limited.It would not have to become the center of the school, must be one more a tool. If a school gave the student to choose what to privilege, would privilege a good teacher before a good network of computation.

- It is necessary to have utopias and it seems important to me that one of them is to preserve the school like an alternative site. The wave of superficiality and triviality invades us to all. Nevertheless, it seems that it is necessary to resist, and to conceive to the school like that place of resistance. A place until revolutionary, where it is educated the boy to think the world of another form. If no, the boys are going to think the world like great means.

Mainly, a greater commitment makes lack of the parents with the academic quality of the education of its children. If the schools in which the parents pay not little, and, were the best ones from the academic point of view, thing that is not thus, we would be signaling for the rest of the society. That is to say, nor to those who they have means interest to them to obtain the academic quality in the education.

Personal Reaction
THAT a book on education becomes best to seller is the good news. Still more because, unlike most of the speeches about the school, common plenty of good intentions and places, the educative tragedy speaks to us of essential things.
According to Jaim Etcheverry, "the education has been outside the reach of the teachers and is directed by the people in charge of entretenimiento.[… ] The televising spectacle constitutes true currículo, that is to say, an information system designed specially in order to influence, to teach, to train or to cultivate the mind and the character of youth."

The main risk, alerts Jaim Etcheverry, consists of which the television imposes a learning model, a "educative philosophy" in which "education and the entertainment are inseparable". But the viewer, generally, does not have the attitude of the apprentice. In the screen he looks for, in general, an immediate satisfaction and he is not prearranged (except for when he participates in programs of educative television) to the systematic effort. When what sees "is not entertained or amused" chooses by exit , that is to say, he changes of channel (or he extinguishes the television set). So that that does not happen, it is necessary to captivate the spectator, to mobilize his emotions and feelings and not his reasoning and reflection.

The education demands an order, a continuity, a sequence, a time, laborious and sometimes complex argumentations, ingredients that are "enemy of the television" of masses. For that reason, the author reasons, is not necessary to trust to the television the development of the best human faculties: that one is the function of the school, but of renewed and a deeply enriched school, put to the height of the aims that it has to fulfill to contribute in the civilization process.

All in all, i must ti admit that it was a rwarding experience to attend to that lecture

Too tired to sleep...

2007-08-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

A friend asked yesterday how my life was when i was 20.It was great my answer was.Once at home I starte to recall old memories about those time,by the end of the night I realized that it hadnt been as great as I tought.So today, I will write how my life was in those times.
Why is it in life, that when everytihng can go wrong, it does?! I wish just one time things would go the way that I want them to!Just once, JUST ONCE, I wish that something would work out for me. Just once... I don't think that's too much to ask...

I love a guy I can't have, and I have a guy I can't really love. I know how awful that sounds. Believe me, I know how awful that sounds, but it's true. I know I can be happier. I know there are so many things that I need to do for myself, but he's happy... Everyone says for once in my life I need to make myself happy. For once I need to think of myself. But I can't.. I just can't... I'd give anything in the world to be that strong person that I used to be. I'd give anything int he world to be that girl that I used to be... The one that wasn't affraid of ANYTHING or ANYONE. The girl who stood up for herself, and didn't back down, the girl who knew who she was and who she wanted to be. The girl who knew what she deserved and wouldn't settle for less... but I can't seem to find that girl anymore. I've gotten so used to jsut settling for tihngs, that I've forgotten how to fight back... I don't even remember who I am anymore, and that bothers me more than anything.

My entire life I always said that I was never going to stay here. All I wanted to do was pack up and leave just as fast as I could and be done with it here, and once Grandpa died, I had no reason to stay at all. but now, if I stay inthe relationship I'm in, I know I'll never get the chance to do the things I really want to do. I'm almost 20, and if I stay, my whole life has already been planned out for me. I know where I'm going to live, what I'm going to do, who I'm going to marry, how many kids I'm going to have... I know all of it... AND I DON'T WANT TO! I'm not done making mistakes yet. I'm not done being myself yet, I still need to find myself... I can't live for the rest of my life as this person that I'm expected to be, when I don't really know who I am...

It's getting to the point where I'm starting to hate his family. And I mean HATE them. All they do is scream and bitch at eachother. They scream at eachother, they scream at everyone else. I'm just waiting for the time they scream at me. I'm really waiting for that one. I'm almost hoping it will happen... I have so much that I want to say to them if they do. They just...they piss me off SO much... I've done so much for them since we got together. I spend all this time with his mom and his grandma. I go everywhere with them, and yet, they still think I'm a bad person. I adored his grandmother, I really did. Then one afternoon we were sitting out to her house and she looks over at me all the sudden and this is exactly what she tells me. " You know, I don't like the way you treat my grandson. If you loved him like you say you do, you wouldn't treat himt he way you do. If you really loved him, you wouldn't need so many friends, you wouldn't talk to so many guys, you'd be completely content with him." What the hell do you say to that?! Honestly?! Dad always told me to bite my tounge, so I just sat there, but what really huty the most, was he just sat there and looked at me, he never said anything back to her... It's always me. I'm always the bad person. I'm always the one who's done something wrong. It's always my fault, and it doens't matter what it is that happened. I'm so sick of being the one that always gets blamed for everything!

Do you have any idea what it feels like to be treated like a child by everyone?! At work, everyone talks to me like I'm nothign because I'm a student (until soemtihng goes wrong then I have to fix it). Then I turn around at night and I ge tit from him to. He acts like I can't do anything. He doens't let me do anything. Mom and dad wonder why i've put so much weight on over the past couple months, it's because I DON'T DO ANYTHING! He won't let me! I get so sick of being told no, and made to feel like an idiot that I just can't stand it anymore! He has this constant need to prove me wrong, which just pisses me off. Even when i'm right, and I know I'm right, he feels the need to try to prove me wrong! Every night before we hang up the phone, do you know what I'm told? " Now, I know you don't have anymore homework, so there's no reason for you to be on the computer tonight. So don't be on the internet, and don't be playing around on your cell phone. Just go to bed." it mauy not seem like he's saying anytihng wrong, but to me he'd treating me like he's my father, not my boyfriend.

I get so sick of being accused of cheating just from talking to people it makes me sick. Every night, 10 or 20 times he always asks me four questions. 1) Never gonna leave me are you? 2) Be with me forever right? 3) Never cheat/ed on me right? 4) Pinky swear? yeah, that's a wonderful way to let our girlfriend know you trust her. I love it. I have guys that I've been friends with since before I even knew he was alive, BUT I'm talking to them, I've went to see them, I must be sleeping with them. If I'm really that much of a slut, then why in the fuck is he with me? If I'm that terrible of a person, and you can't trust someone like me that much, then why stay?! That's what I want to know.

OH! He's also gotten to this wonderful stage where he feels the need to CONSTANTLY spend money. He constantly thinks that he has to prove to me that he loves me by spending money on me. Which also leads him to believe that because he did this he deserves to be paid back (generally with something of a sexual nature). FIRST, you do not have to buy me. If you feel you must buy my love, YOU DON'T LOVE ME! And SECOND, if you do do sometihng nice, or buy me something, that doens't AUTOMATICALLY LEAD TO SEX! I'm sorry, I just don't work that way. i'm not the kind of girl that must be bought. I'm not the kind of girl that has to have money in a relationship, an dfor him to think that of me really hurts. he throws it in my face all the time that I never have money. And he throws it in my face that I came from nothing, my family doens't have much, or other various ways of saying the same thing. BUT he always has to tell me in the end though, that if I stay with him, I'll never have to worry about that again. He'll work 3 or 4 jobs and i'll never have to work if that will make me happy. ONCE AGAIN, I'm not that kinda girl! If I can't afford it on my own, I obviously don't need it. We've been together for almost 3 years, and in that 3 years I've asked him for moeny twice, TWICE, both of which was for gas so I could go to work. AND I PAID HIM BACK! He acts like I have to have him there to survive, he has to be there so I can make it day to day. That's not true either. I do so much better by myself. I'd rather be by myself at times.

I'm so sick of this whole situation. Everything about it just makes me want to scream, but he just doesn't seem to get it. I can't say anything to him. He just won't listen. If I even bring up the fact that I'd like tot ake a break or something, he starts crying. He tells me that I'm the only reason he's still alive and if it wasn't for me he'd just kill himself. If I left him he'd kill himself. I can't have that kind of responcibility on my head. I know everyone says that he only tells me that to make me stay, and maybe it's true, but that scares me. I don't want to live with that. I don't wan tto live knowing that it's my fault he isn't. I'm so ungodly miserable with him, and with myself, but he's still alive, so I don't leave.

It's so sad that I can sit here right now and think of about 4 or 5 different people that I know I'd be happier with, but I just can't bring myself to leave him because I'm scared of what he would do. I don't want people to think that I don't love him. I do love him. I always have loved him, and I always will, I just don't love him like I did. t's one of those "I love you, but I'm not IN love with you situations." i'm just so scared of being by myself again. The kind of person I can be, scares me. In my little circle fo friends, I was "the WILD ONE." I lived by the moto "I'll try anything twice, three times if I like it." And that wasn't always a good thing. I don't regret any of it. I don't hate the way I used to be, I just know I didn't always make the best decisions for myself.

Everyone around me tells me that I need ot just leave him to make myself happy. they all know I'd be so much happier with someone else, and so do I to a certain extent. I can sit here right now, and I can tell you one person I know I could be with, and I know I could be happy with, but what if I'm supposed to be with him (the guy I'm with now)? What if this is how it's suppsoed to be for me for the rest of my life? What if I leave him and mess all that up? What if it's not really as bad as it seems? it's the what if's that always stop me... then mom comes in the other night and tells me " I know you're not happy with him, I know you haven't been for a while. but I wan tyou to think about this. If you leave him, you'll never find anyone else..." Wonderful... as if I didn't feel bad enoguh about myself before hand, she says this. Peachy keen...If I leave him, I'm destined to become a little old lady with a million cats, and no family. Wonderful.

If I do leave, what do I do next? Where do I go? What do I do? It's been almost three years since I was single last. I don't think I remember how to be single... What do i do with everything he's given me? What do I do with the pictures and the scrapbooks? What do I do with the cedar chest he built me for Christmas? What about all of the good things we did together? What about all of the memories? What do I do with all of it? Do I keep it? Do I give it back? Do I get rid of it?
I wish i could just decide what to do. I know what I need to do. I know what I should do. I know what I want to do. but yet, I just can't make myself do it. I wish that just one thing in my life could be easy. I wish just one thing in my life would work out right. I know that so many people out there have so many more problems than I do. belive me, I know there are people everywhere with bigger burgens than this. I've had y fair sahre of those problems. This is the one I'm facing right now, insignificant to most, but huge to me..

What is in his head?

2007-08-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

In contrast to the common femenine belief that there is nothing in a men´s head but sport, beer and alchohol, I fortunatly can say that after a extensive , exhaustive and risky research carry out for 4 years during the loving relationship I have been holding with my dearest boyfriend,that it is partly true.Empirically speaking,men have more the the threefold already mentioned.The problem is that the vast majority of them are devoid of any ability or better to say any capacity to express their feeling or voice their heads. It takes a little time to trained a man to say it out loud what is going to inside there.It is difficult,yeat not impossible I have to admit.
The question"what is in his head?" has surrounded my urged need to discover his true self.At the beginning I just looked for little tips of his personality to have a tiny idea of what his head contains.This was not a good methodology, just because I ended up with inferences, ideas,reflexions of the realitity i was asking to know.After a while I opted for a more direct course of action, to go and ask exactly what he was thinking of.It turned to be that he is just like me.What is in his hea d is love, worry, insecurity, passion,anger,fear,pityness,confidence,trust.One thing We should understand is that men are not so differect from us.They are not the enemy but a potential ally.

A superficial duality

2007-08-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have always hated those girls who are superficial,whose more striking fear is not to be in a compose style all day, whose riskier choices are divided in ,wearing last season style and combine colours that are dangerous.But honestly speaking, just because women are part of the femenime world it is almost impossible for to avoid a superficial moment at leat once in life, it is in our nature.
Recently , I have allowed myself to be superficial and to let me be led my a barby- way of thought -trend.I hope it will last just for a short period, untill 15th september,which is the day when I will go to a Wedding party.I have never imagined how difficult is to be a barby girl all the time.And how exausting activity it is.After spending a whole day tring to chooose the correct make up,dress and hair style, i will never will look dowm on those do that every day.

The recipe for a good life

2007-08-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Recipe for a good life
Prep: lifetime, Cook: forever, plus refrigeration time.

infinite cups of love
1/4 cup patient
1/4 cup courage, softened
2 lbs. compasion
3 Tbs. intelligence
6 ounces crazyness, softened
1/2 cup caring for others
1 lsp. loyalty and trust extract
1 cup ambition, chilled
1-1/4 lbs. passion pie filling
1 Tbs. temper (optional)

Prepare life pie shell: Preheat oven to 450°F at the first years. Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl Character. Add Tbs. intelligence. Stir vigorously until a very soft dough forms made of experiences. Press dough firmly with daily perseverance . Flute if desired. Bake forever, until the end. Cool in grave

Combine 6 ounces crazyness, softened, 1/2 cup caring for others and 1 lsp. loyalty and trust extractin in the bowl of life and mix until well blended. Beat 1 cup ambition, chilled

in another bowl until stiff. Fold in compasion. Spoon into pie shell and spread with pie life filling. Drizzle with topping. Refrigerate at least 88 years, until set.

This recipe serves everybody. Due to the nature of this recipe, it adjusts the number of servings in multiples of people that touch your life ,only.

What AIDS Means in a Famine

2007-08-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

November 19, 2002

What AIDS Means in a Famine

By ALEX DE WAAL

Just as H.I.V. destroys the body's immune system, the epidemic of H.I.V. and AIDS has disabled the body politic. As a result of H.I.V., the worst-hit African countries have undergone a social breakdown that is now reaching a new level: African societies' capacity to resist famine is fast eroding. Hunger and disease have begun reinforcing each other. As daunting as the prospect is, we will have to fight them together, or we will succeed against neither.

About 29 million Africans are infected with H.I.V. The epidemic is spread by heterosexual transmission almost entirely. Only 30,000 of these people are receiving antiretroviral treatment. Between three million and four million people are dying each year from AIDS-related diseases. Twenty percent of adults in South Africa live with H.I.V.; the figure is higher still in Botswana, where life expectancy has plunged below 40 years.

How do such realities relate to famine? Traditional agrarian societies in Africa were well adapted to the threat of drought. Food shortage was like a familiar virus, unpleasant and painful but one to which most people had resistance. For example, the victims of famine were almost exclusively young children and the elderly. Young adults rarely died -- and women survived better than men. Society's core was preserved, and it could recover. Rural Africans were experts at surviving famine. Women knew exactly what wild grains, roots and berries could be eaten as famine foods when there was no maize. Families scattered their members over a wide area and called on distant relations for help when times got hard.

These coping skills meant that rural Africa was forgiving of the shortcomings of international relief programs. Typically, calls by the United Nations for food donations fall short of their goal by half or more. Yet the inhabitants of, say, Mozambique or Sudan have still pulled through.

This is changing. We are facing a new variant of famine: in societies hurt by AIDS, famine is more deadly and less susceptible to existing treatments. The reason is that AIDS attacks exactly those capacities that enable people to resist famine.

AIDS kills young adults, especially women -- the people whose labor is most needed. When the rains come, people must work 16 hours a day planting and weeding the crop. If that critical period is missed, the family will go hungry. In a community depleted by AIDS, each working adult must produce more to feed the same number of dependents -- not just children but sick adults, too.

The burden of care for those sick with AIDS can cripple a family. Many employers -- private and public -- have withdrawn benefits. Town dwellers who fall sick go home to the village to pass their final months, to die and be buried. Children orphaned by AIDS are sent to the village to be cared for. There is a prevailing myth that the African extended family will cope with this double burden of care. We are learning the hard way that it cannot.

The drop in adult life expectancy also has implications that we are only just beginning to appreciate. The normal generational cycle means that assets like land and cattle are accumulated and handed down by the older generation. Grandparents can assist with child care; older women can pass on a lifetime's experience of gathering and preparing wild grains and fruits to their daughters. Today all this is interrupted. Young people are inheriting debts and are not learning essential skills. How can a young woman, looking after six children, have the experience and skill of her mother or grandmother in cultivating her field, collecting wild fruits and planning for survival through a tough year? And can she even make any plans on the premise that things will return to normal some day?

Finally, the first response of any adult faced with a harvest failure is to tighten her belt. Relief workers in Africa have become so used to this physiological resilience that they ignore adults' nutritional needs and just focus on children. But adult hunger is no longer a passing difficulty. A person living with H.I.V. needs better nutrition -- more calories and especially more protein -- to stay healthy. Malnutrition accelerates the progression to AIDS.

As their livelihoods collapse, their family networks fold and their coping strategies vanish, millions of young women are turning to what is called ''survival sex'' to feed their children. The consequences for H.I.V. transmission do not need to be spelled out.

In short, H.I.V. is imperiling the ability of African societies to reproduce themselves. Even when the rains come we will not see a return to normalcy but merely a breathing space. And we will be forced to appreciate just how different this crisis is.

Some senior United Nations leaders, notably Kofi Annan, the secretary general, have recognized the scale and gravity of the AIDS cataclysm and its link to famine. But the policy tools we have are blunt, fashioned for a different kind of crisis. We can't just ship in food. Food assistance and scaled-up antiretroviral treatment must go hand in hand. We need imaginative and large-scale responses to the burden of care: how to support the millions of people who are looking after dependent children (many of them orphans) and people with AIDS? We need to re-examine farming systems to put more money into farmers' hands and more protein on their tables. Above all, we need to restore a sense of the future to a generation facing an appalling crisis, to help unlock their energies in search of solutions.

Date:14th August,2007

Name:Soria,Raquel

English Language IV

Reading report

Tittle: What AIDS Means in a Famine

Source: The New York Times

Date of publication:

Published: November 19, 2002

Vocabulary:

breakdown
noun [C]
1 ILLNESS (ALSO nervous breakdown) a short period of mental illness when people are too ill to continue with their normal lives
to have a breakdown

2 FAILURE when something such as communication or a relationship fails or ends
a breakdown in the peace talks

3 EXPLANATION a short explanation of the details of something
I need a breakdown of the costs involved.

4 NOT WORKING when a vehicle or machine stops working for a period of time

daunting
adjective
If something is daunting, it makes you worried because it is difficult or frightening.
a daunting challenge/task

plunge¹
verb
1 plunge down/into, etc to fall or move down very quickly and with force
The car came off the road and plunged down the hillside.
He plunged into the water.

2 [I] to become lower in temperature, value, etc very suddenly and quickly
Temperatures plunged below zero.

core
noun
1 IMPORTANT PART [no plural] the most important part of a system or principle
core values
Better health care was at the core of the senator's campaign.

2 FRUIT [C] the hard, central part of certain fruits, such as apples, which contains the seeds

3 PLANET [no plural] the centre of a planet

scattered
adjective
covering a wide area
His toys were scattered all over the floor.
There will be scattered showers (= separate areas of rain) today.

pull through phrasal verb
to continue to live after you have been badly injured or very ill

deplete
verb [T]
to reduce the amount of something, especially a natural supply
Alcohol depletes the body of B vitamins.
depletion
noun [U]
the depletion of the ozone layer
cripple¹
verb [T]
1 BODY to injure someone so that they cannot use their arms or legs
[often passive] His son was crippled by a riding accident.

2 DAMAGE to damage something very badly and make it weak or not effective
[often passive] a country crippled by war .

asset
noun [C]
1 ADVANTAGE a person, skill, or quality which is useful or helps you to succeed
He'll be a great asset to the team.

2 MONEY something which a person or company owns which has a value
[usually plural] The company has $70 billion in assets.

premise
noun [C] FORMAL
an idea that you use to support another theory.

resilient
adjective
strong enough to get better quickly after damage, illness, shock, etc
Growth figures show that the economy is still fairly resilient.

imperil
verb [T] (UK) imperilling, past imperilled, (US) imperiling, past imperiled FORMAL
to put someone or something in a dangerous situation
A police raid would imperil the lives of the hostages.

normality
(ALSO US normalcy
) noun [U]
a situation in which everything is happening normally
a return to normality.

blunt¹
adjective
1 NOT SHARP not sharp
a blunt knife

2 RUDE saying exactly what you think without caring about people's feelings
a blunt letter
bluntness noun [U]

Summary

As Southern Africa's HIV/AIDS infection rates combine with widespread famine conditions, the region faces not only sickness and starvation, but also a severe long-term threat to its economies and societies. This twin sidest of disease and hunger has direct consequences for families, communities and production systems. Agriculture, Africa's economic mainstay, is being hit especially hard.

Personal reaction:

There are so many misconceptions surrounding HIV and AIDS; myth and misunderstanding fueled by the media, by fear, and by ignorance. Let’s take a look at the truth; five things every teen should know about HIV and AIDS.

1. HIV Does Not Discriminate

2. Oral Sex Is Not as Safe as You Think

3. There’s more to Worry About than Pregnancy

4. Sometimes People Hide the Truth / Sometimes People Don’t Know

5. HIV Kills and There is No Cure

The Selfish Giant

2007-08-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

The Selfish Giant

A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

with illustrations by Charles Robinson

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden.

It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. "How happy we are here!" they cried to each other.

One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. After the seven years were over he had said all that he had to say, for his conversation was limited, and he determined to return to his own castle. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden.

"What are you doing here?" he cried in a very gruff voice, and the children ran away.

"My own garden is my own garden," said the Giant; "any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.

TRESPASSERS
WILL BE
PROSECUTED

He was a very selfish Giant.

The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside. "How happy we were there," they said to each other.

Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. "Spring has forgotten this garden," they cried, "so we will live here all the year round." The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. "This is a delightful spot," he said, "we must ask the Hail on a visit." So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice.

"I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming," said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; "I hope there will be a change in the weather."

But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. "He is too selfish," she said. So it was always Winter there, and the North Wind, and the Hail, and the Frost, and the Snow danced about through the trees.

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King's musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. "I believe the Spring has come at last," said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out.

What did he see?

He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were looking up through the green grass and laughing. It was a lovely scene, only in one corner it was still winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. "Climb up! little boy," said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could; but the boy was too tiny.

And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. "How selfish I have been!" he said; "now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever." He was really very sorry for what he had done.

So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he did not see the Giant coming. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him. And the other children, when they saw that the Giant was not wicked any longer, came running back, and with them came the Spring. "It is your garden now, little children," said the Giant, and he took a great axe and knocked down the wall. And when the people were going to market at twelve o'clock they found the Giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had ever seen.

All day long they played, and in the evening they came to the Giant to bid him good-bye.

"But where is your little companion?" he said: "the boy I put into the tree." The Giant loved him the best because he had kissed him.

"We don't know," answered the children; "he has gone away."

"You must tell him to be sure and come here to-morrow," said the Giant. But the children said that they did not know where he lived, and had never seen him before; and the Giant felt very sad.

Every afternoon, when school was over, the children came and played with the Giant. But the little boy whom the Giant loved was never seen again. The Giant was very kind to all the children, yet he longed for his first little friend, and often spoke of him. "How I would like to see him!" he used to say.

Years went over, and the Giant grew very old and feeble. He could not play about any more, so he sat in a huge armchair, and watched the children at their games, and admired his garden. "I have many beautiful flowers," he said; "but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all."

One winter morning he looked out of his window as he was dressing. He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was merely the Spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.

Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved. Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, "Who hath dared to wound thee?" For on the palms of the child's hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.

"Who hath dared to wound thee?" cried the Giant; "tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him."

"Nay!" answered the child; "but these are the wounds of Love."

"Who art thou?" said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.

And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, "You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise."

And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.

Happy Prince by Osacar Wilde

2007-08-16T04:58:00.000-07:00

The Happy Prince

A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

with illustrations by Charles Robinson

High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.

He was very much admired indeed. "He is as beautiful as a weathercock," remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; "only not quite so useful," he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.

"Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?" asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. "The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything."

"I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy," muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.

"He looks just like an angel," said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores.

"How do you know?" said the Mathematical Master, "you have never seen one."

"Ah! but we have, in our dreams," answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.

One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.

"Shall I love you?" said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples. This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.

"It is a ridiculous attachment," twittered the other Swallows; "she has no money, and far too many relations"; and indeed the river was quite full of Reeds. Then, when the autumn came they all flew away.

After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady- love. "She has no conversation," he said, "and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind." And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. "I admit that she is domestic," he continued, "but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also."

"Will you come away with me?" he said finally to her; but the Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home.

"You have been trifling with me," he cried. "I am off to the Pyramids. Good-bye!" and he flew away.

All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city. "Where shall I put up?" he said; "I hope the town has made preparations."

Then he saw the statue on the tall column.

"I will put up there," he cried; "it is a fine position, with plenty of fresh air." So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.

"I have a golden bedroom," he said softly to himself as he looked round, and he prepared to go to sleep; but just as he was putting his head under his wing a large drop of water fell on him. "What a curious thing!" he cried; "there is not a single cloud in the sky, the stars are quite clear and bright, and yet it is raining. The climate in the north of Europe is really dreadful. The Reed used to like the rain, but that was merely her selfishness."

Then another drop fell.

"What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?" he said; "I must look for a good chimney-pot," and he determined to fly away.

But before he had opened his wings, a third drop fell, and he looked up, and saw--Ah! what did he see?

The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks. His face was so beautiful in the moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity.

"Who are you?" he said.

"I am the Happy Prince."

"Why are you weeping then?" asked the Swallow; "you have quite drenched me."

"When I was alive and had a human heart," answered the statue, "I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans- Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot chose but weep."

"What! is he not solid gold?" said the Swallow to himself. He was too polite to make any personal remarks out loud.

"Far away," continued the statue in a low musical voice, "far away in a little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering passion- flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of- honour to wear at the next Court-ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying. Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move."

"I am waited for in Egypt," said the Swallow. "My friends are flying up and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus- flowers. Soon they will go to sleep in the tomb of the great King. The King is there himself in his painted coffin. He is wrapped in yellow linen, and embalmed with spices. Round his neck is a chain of pale green jade, and his hands are like withered leaves."

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay with me for one night, and be my messenger? The boy is so thirsty, and the mother so sad."

"I don't think I like boys," answered the Swallow. "Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller's sons, who were always throwing stones at me. They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect."

But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little Swallow was sorry. "It is very cold here," he said; "but I will stay with you for one night, and be your messenger."

"Thank you, little Swallow," said the Prince.

So the Swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince's sword, and flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town.

He passed by the cathedral tower, where the white marble angels were sculptured. He passed by the palace and heard the sound of dancing. A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. "How wonderful the stars are," he said to her, "and how wonderful is the power of love!"

"I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball," she answered; "I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but the seamstresses are so lazy."

He passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging to the masts of the ships. He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales. At last he came to the poor house and looked in. The boy was tossing feverishly on his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired. In he hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman's thimble. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy's forehead with his wings. "How cool I feel," said the boy, "I must be getting better"; and he sank into a delicious slumber.

Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had done. "It is curious," he remarked, "but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold."

"That is because you have done a good action," said the Prince. And the little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep. Thinking always made him sleepy.

When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath. "What a remarkable phenomenon," said the Professor of Ornithology as he was passing over the bridge. "A swallow in winter!" And he wrote a long letter about it to the local newspaper. Every one quoted it, it was full of so many words that they could not understand.

"To-night I go to Egypt," said the Swallow, and he was in high spirits at the prospect. He visited all the public monuments, and sat a long time on top of the church steeple. Wherever he went the Sparrows chirruped, and said to each other, "What a distinguished stranger!" so he enjoyed himself very much.

When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince. "Have you any commissions for Egypt?" he cried; "I am just starting."

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay with me one night longer?"

"I am waited for in Egypt," answered the Swallow. "To-morrow my friends will fly up to the Second Cataract. The river-horse couches there among the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon. All night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent. At noon the yellow lions come down to the water's edge to drink. They have eyes like green beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract.

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint."

"I will wait with you one night longer," said the Swallow, who really had a good heart. "Shall I take him another ruby?"

"Alas! I have no ruby now," said the Prince; "my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play."

"Dear Prince," said the Swallow, "I cannot do that"; and he began to weep.

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "do as I command you."

So the Swallow plucked out the Prince's eye, and flew away to the student's garret. It was easy enough to get in, as there was a hole in the roof. Through this he darted, and came into the room. The young man had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the bird's wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying on the withered violets.

"I am beginning to be appreciated," he cried; "this is from some great admirer. Now I can finish my play," and he looked quite happy.

The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour. He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold with ropes. "Heave a-hoy!" they shouted as each chest came up. "I am going to Egypt"! cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.

"I am come to bid you good-bye," he cried.

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay with me one night longer?"

"It is winter," answered the Swallow, "and the chill snow will soon be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves are watching them, and cooing to each other. Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea."

"In the square below," said the Happy Prince, "there stands a little match-girl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare. Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her."

"I will stay with you one night longer," said the Swallow, "but I cannot pluck out your eye. You would be quite blind then."

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "do as I command you."

So he plucked out the Prince's other eye, and darted down with it. He swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her hand. "What a lovely bit of glass," cried the little girl; and she ran home, laughing.

Then the Swallow came back to the Prince. "You are blind now," he said, "so I will stay with you always."

"No, little Swallow," said the poor Prince, "you must go away to Egypt."

"I will stay with you always," said the Swallow, and he slept at the Prince's feet.

All the next day he sat on the Prince's shoulder, and told him stories of what he had seen in strange lands. He told him of the red ibises, who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold-fish in their beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a palm-tree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the butterflies.

"Dear little Swallow," said the Prince, "you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there."

So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates. He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a bridge two little boys were lying in one another's arms to try and keep themselves warm. "How hungry we are!" they said. "You must not lie here," shouted the Watchman, and they wandered out into the rain.

Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen.

"I am covered with fine gold," said the Prince, "you must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold can make them happy."

Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy Prince looked quite dull and grey. Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he brought to the poor, and the children's faces grew rosier, and they laughed and played games in the street. "We have bread now!" they cried.

Then the snow came, and after the snow came the frost. The streets looked as if they were made of silver, they were so bright and glistening; long icicles like crystal daggers hung down from the eaves of the houses, everybody went about in furs, and the little boys wore scarlet caps and skated on the ice.

The poor little Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well. He picked up crumbs outside the baker's door when the baker was not looking and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings. But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just strength to fly up to the Prince's shoulder once more. "Good-bye, dear Prince!" he murmured, "will you let me kiss your hand?"

"I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow," said the Prince, "you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you."

"It is not to Egypt that I am going," said the Swallow. "I am going to the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?"

And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.

At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.

Early the next morning the Mayor was walking in the square below in company with the Town Councillors. As they passed the column he looked up at the statue: "Dear me! how shabby the Happy Prince looks!" he said.

"How shabby indeed!" cried the Town Councillors, who always agreed with the Mayor; and they went up to look at it.

"The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer," said the Mayor in fact, "he is litttle beter than a beggar!"

"Little better than a beggar," said the Town Councillors.

"And here is actually a dead bird at his feet!" continued the Mayor. "We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here." And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion.

So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. "As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful," said the Art Professor at the University.

Then they melted the statue in a furnace, and the Mayor held a meeting of the Corporation to decide what was to be done with the metal. "We must have another statue, of course," he said, "and it shall be a statue of myself."

"Of myself," said each of the Town Councillors, and they quarrelled. When I last heard of them they were quarrelling still.

"What a strange thing!" said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry. "This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace. We must throw it away." So they threw it on a dust-heap where the dead Swallow was also lying.

"Bring me the two most precious things in the city," said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.

"You have rightly chosen," said God, "for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me."

The nightingale and the Rose

2007-08-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

The Nightingale and the Rose

A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

"She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses," cried the young Student; "but in all my garden there is no red rose."

From her nest in the holm-oak tree the Nightingale heard him, and she looked out through the leaves, and wondered.

"No red rose in all my garden!" he cried, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears. "Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched."

"Here at last is a true lover," said the Nightingale. "Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow." "The Prince gives a ball to-morrow night," murmured the young Student, "and my love will be of the company. If I bring her a red rose she will dance with me till dawn. If I bring her a red rose, I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine. But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She will have no heed of me, and my heart will break."

"Here indeed is the true lover," said the Nightingale. "What I sing of, he suffers--what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold."

"The musicians will sit in their gallery," said the young Student, "and play upon their stringed instruments, and my love will dance to the sound of the harp and the violin. She will dance so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor, and the courtiers in their gay dresses will throng round her. But with me she will not dance, for I have no red rose to give her"; and he flung himself down on the grass, and buried his face in his hands, and wept.

"Why is he weeping?" asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.

"Why, indeed?" said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam.

"Why, indeed?" whispered a Daisy to his neighbour, in a soft, low voice.

"He is weeping for a red rose," said the Nightingale.

"For a red rose?" they cried; "how very ridiculous!" and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright.

But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student's sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.

Suddenly she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She passed through the grove like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed across the garden.

In the centre of the grass-plot was standing a beautiful Rose-tree, and when she saw it she flew over to it, and lit upon a spray.

"Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song."

But the Tree shook its head.

"My roses are white," it answered; "as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snow upon the mountain. But go to my brother who grows round the old sun-dial, and perhaps he will give you what you want."

So the Nightingale flew over to the Rose-tree that was growing round the old sun-dial.

"Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song."

But the Tree shook its head.

"My roses are yellow," it answered; "as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden who sits upon an amber throne, and yellower than the daffodil that blooms in the meadow before the mower comes with his scythe. But go to my brother who grows beneath the Student's window, and perhaps he will give you what you want."

So the Nightingale flew over to the Rose-tree that was growing beneath the Student's window.

"Give me a red rose," she cried, "and I will sing you my sweetest song."

But the Tree shook its head.

"My roses are red," it answered, "as red as the feet of the dove, and redder than the great fans of coral that wave and wave in the ocean-cavern. But the winter has chilled my veins, and the frost has nipped my buds, and the storm has broken my branches, and I shall have no roses at all this year." "One red rose is all I want," cried the Nightingale, "only one red rose! Is there no way by which I can get it?"

"There is away," answered the Tree; "but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you."

"Tell it to me," said the Nightingale, "I am not afraid."

"If you want a red rose," said the Tree, "you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's-blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine."

"Death is a great price to pay for a red rose," cried the Nightingale, "and Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?"

So she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She swept over the garden like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed through the grove.

The young Student was still lying on the grass, where she had left him, and the tears were not yet dry in his beautiful eyes.

"Be happy," cried the Nightingale, "be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame- coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense."

The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books.

But the Oak-tree understood, and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale who had built her nest in his branches.

"Sing me one last song," he whispered; "I shall feel very lonely when you are gone."

So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-tree, and her voice was likewater bubbling from a silver jar.

When she had finished her song the Student got up, and pulled a note-book and a lead-pencil out of his pocket.

"She has form," he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove--"that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that the arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good." And he went into his room, and lay down on his little pallet-bed, and began to think of his love; and, after a time, he fell asleep.

And when the Moon shone in the heavens the Nightingale flew to the Rose-tree, and set her breast against the thorn. All night long she sang with her breast against the thorn, and the cold crystal Moon leaned down and listened. All night long she sang, and the thorn went deeper and deeper into her breast, and her life-blood ebbed away from her.

She sang first of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl. And on the top-most spray of the Rose-tree there blossomed a marvellous rose, petal following petal, as song followed song. Pale was it, at first, as the mist that hangs over the river--pale as the feet of the morning, and silver as the wings of the dawn. As the shadow of a rose in a mirror of silver, as the shadow of a rose in a water-pool, so was the rose that blossomed on the topmost spray of the Tree.

But the Tree cried to the Nightingale to press closer against the thorn. "Press closer, little Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or the Day will come before the rose is finished."

So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and louder and louder grew her song, for she sang of the birth of passion in the soul of a man and a maid.

And a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the lips of the bride. But the thorn had not yet reached her heart, so the rose's heart remained white, for only a Nightingale's heart's-blood can crimson the heart of a rose.

And the Tree cried to the Nightingale to press closer against the thorn. "Press closer, little Nightingale," cried the Tree, "or the Day will come before the rose is finished."

So the Nightingale pressed closer against the thorn, and the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her. Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb.

And the marvellous rose became crimson, like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart.

But the Nightingale's voice grew fainter, and her little wings began to beat, and a film came over her eyes. Fainter and fainter grew her song, and she felt something choking her in her throat.

Then she gave one last burst of music. The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky. The red rose heard it, and it trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals to the cold morning air. Echo bore it to her purple cavern in the hills, and woke the sleeping shepherds from their dreams. It floated through the reeds of the river, and they carried its message to the sea.

"Look, look!" cried the Tree, "the rose is finished now"; but the Nightingale made no answer, for she was lying dead in the long grass, with the thorn in her heart.

And at noon the Student opened his window and looked out.

"Why, what a wonderful piece of luck!" he cried; "here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name"; and he leaned down and plucked it.

Then he put on his hat, and ran up to the Professor's house with the rose in his hand.

The daughter of the Professor was sitting in the doorway winding blue silk on a reel, and her little dog was lying at her feet.

"You said that you would dance with me if I brought you a red rose," cried the Student. "Here is the reddest rose in all the world. You will wear it to-night next your heart, and as we dance together it will tell you how I love you."

But the girl frowned.

"I am afraid it will not go with my dress," she answered; "and, besides, the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers."

"Well, upon my word, you are very ungrateful," said the Student angrily; and he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cart-wheel went over it.

"Ungrateful!" said the girl. "I tell you what, you are very rude; and, after all, who are you? Only a Student. Why, I don't believe you have even got silver buckles to your shoes as the Chamberlain's nephew has"; and she got up from her chair and went into the house.

"What I a silly thing Love is," said the Student as he walked away. "It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics."

So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.

Transgenic Food

2007-08-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

English Language IV

Oral Presentation ,April 2007

Perhaps a little dramatic, but not altogether off the mark. We're talking about food that has had certain characteristics cut out, and others, perhaps from a different species, pasted in. How appropriate for the end of the 20th Century! We certainly know how to cut and paste on our computers, how to do heart and kidney and liver transplants, why not extend the metaphor to plants and animals?

Genes are long bits of DNA which code the instructions to build bodies in certain ways. Scientists know a lot about how genes work. They know how to 'snip' genes out of one place and 'stick' them into another. This is the hi-tech world of genetic engineering. We'll look at this in a moment. But first, let's ask a question or two. Why bother? What's the point of tinkering with genes - genetic engineering?

Evolution on fast forward
People are impatient. They want to move fast, not just in cars, planes and spaceships. They want to make new types of life which will do new things. The best example is plants for food. About 10,000 years ago, people found a new way to make sure they got enough food: they invented agriculture - farming. The first farmers simply collected seeds of food plants people liked to eat and sowed them in the ground. Each harvest, they gathered in their seed crops and selected the best and fattest seeds to sow in the ground next year. Because all organisms - plants, penguins or people - have in their genes a certain amount of variation, gradually this year-by-year selection of the best quality seeds meant that the crops gradually got better, giving more food which tasted nicer. This is now called breeding. And believe it or not, all dogs from huge St Bernards to tiny Chihuahuas have been bred by humans from one type of wild dog - probably a wolf. A St Bernard and a Chihuahua are the same species even though a St Bernard could gobble up a Chihuahua in one gulp. Being the same species means you can breed with any other member of your species. So you, a human, can breed - or mate - with any other human of the opposite sex to make a baby.

But breeding isn't fast enough for some humans who've found they can make lots of money, not just by breeding but by the new science of genetic engineering (part of what is called biotechnology - using life to make things).

So what is genetic engineering?

Engineering' is a fancy word for making something. So genetic engineering (often just called GE) is making something with genes. Clever scientists have learned to spot which gene does what in building a new organism. At least they think they have. They've found out that simple organisms like bacteria or viruses often have genes which are useful because they can be snipped out and put - spliced - into plant genes. Doing this could give the plant special new abilities like resisting disease. This is rather like grabbing a large scorpion so it can't nip you with its claws. You know it's safe to handle since its claws can't reach you but - ow! - it's got a sting in its tail you didn't know about. There may be a 'sting in the tail' which comes from splicing strange genes into other organisms - from viruses to plants, for example. No-one can be certain what will happen. It is unpredictable.

What can genetic engineering do?

By making new types of GE organism (mostly plants) - called transgenic organisms because they contain genes pinched from something else like bacteria, viruses, other plants or even animals - scientists can get the plant to grow bigger or faster or make more for people to eat. Some plants could be made to grow in salty water or very little water - good for very dry countries. Others could be programmed to resist disease. Some could even make stuff called vaccines which could protect kids against nasty illnesses like polio or measles. Sounds great, doesn't it?

What's wrong with genetic engineering?

It's back to speed again. People want results fast. More important is that big companies want to make lots of money out of GE

Most companies like to make lots of money and they like to make it fast. Some don't care much who or what gets trampled on in the process. That's why I'm frightened about GE in the hands of some of the companies that do it. If they could, they'd really like to make sure everyone everywhere is eating food made from GE plants. Then they'd make huge amounts of money because they own the seeds. Once they have changed plants by GE, companies can patent them. This means that any farmer who wants to sow that seed must pay money to the company which owns the patent. It means that the farmer has to buy new seeds every year... He can't save his own seeds any more as farmers have done since the start of farming. The company, not the farmer, then has control over who grows what food. Many poor farmers won't be able to afford to buy the seed.

Patents on living things has also linked in with a new sort of piracy: biopiracy.

But GE is a risky business and nobody knows - nobody! - what will happen if most people end up eating GE food most of the time. Nor does anybody know what effect growing all these plants with funny genes will have on other plants or animals over time. Maybe nothing will happen - or nothing much. Or maybe people and other living things will get ill and die. Nobody knows for sure.

For safety's sake, slow down!

Why the rush? The companies say they want to feed all the world's starving people. I wish I believed that. Few companies want to give money away - which is what they'd have to do to feed the starving. Hungry people have no money to buy food or land to grow it on. That is why they're hungry. Not because there isn't enough food. I think the companies are in a hurry because they want to make money fast. And like a lot of people, I think this is very dangerous because the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) they are already growing and getting us to eat have simply not been tested properly. If they could all agree to slow down while proper tests go ahead, everyone would be much happier.

It's the same stuff! Or is it?

The big seed companies like to say that their GMO seeds and foods are 'substantially equivalent' - meaning more or less the same as ordinary seeds. A soy bean seed or tomato looks the same whether it's genetically modified or it isn't. They taste the same. They smell the same. So they are the same (almost), say the companies. So there's no need to test them. Critics say this is a lie. If a plant's genes have been altered by GE, which is to make the plant make or do something different. So it is different, and it may have effects that no-one can know about until people start to get ill and even die.

In case you think this is a bit far fetched, this may have already happened. Thirty seven people in America died and over a thousand got sick because they ate a special type of food, made using GE bacteria. This food was thought to be 'substantially equivalent' to the normal one. People are still arguing over what happened exactly. Some say it was because of genetic engineering and others say it was not.

What the companies are making now!

The first and most important GE crop is soybeans. "I don't eat those. Yuk!" you probably think. But you'd be surprised because you find them - or stuff made from them - in most foods from bread to hamburgers. Maize or corn is the second most important crop. And there are many more, mostly not important yet. But what's different about these GE crops if they don't taste different or look different? For the moment, there are two main differences: many of these GMOs are made to be resistant to the weedkiller chemicals. That means farmers can spray their GE crops with weedkillers (herbicides) which will kill every single plant except the crop. The other GMO crops have been engineered to make a poison which kills insect pests. These two things seem good ideas, you might think

Problems with weedkiller-safe crops

Farmers like tidy fields and weeds compete with crop plants meaning that the farmer gets less crop and less money. So making sure no weeds grow by spraying herbicide seems to make sense … but not for the other creatures and plants that live on the planet. By killing everything but his crop, the farmer is making the landscape into a desert for other life. No birds will be there because there are no weed seeds or insects to eat. There will be no flowers. Just miles of identical GE plants. The whole web of life is destroyed. Oh, and many farmers are finding that they aren't making the great profits they had hoped to make by growing GE crops.

And problems with poisonous plants

Insects are very successful creatures. They are very adaptable and, because of their own variable genes, can quickly overcome poisons used by humans. Every time a new poison - pesticide - is made, within a few years, pesky insects become immune to it. The same is already happening with the new transgenic plants which make their own insect poisons. Unfortunately, these same poisons are very important in organic farming (farming without chemicals and artificial poisons in a nature-friendly way) as a weapon of last resort. Organic farmers use it only occasionally and it's very effective because the pests have no chance to get used to it. The transgenic crops will be making this poison all the time in every part of the plant - roots, stems and leaves. What will the effect be on people or animals which eat them? Very early experiments suggest that some may be harmful. They are certainly harmful to the insects (predators) which eat other insects (prey) which have started to feed on the plants.

Scattering the genes

What happens when GE plants grow where they're not supposed to? Or when their genes get scattered around by accident? When plants flower, they do it for one reason only: to make new plants. The flowers attract bees which collect pollen from the male part of the flower. The bees visit hundreds of similar flowers, some of which may be miles away, and leave some pollen from their earlier visits on the female parts of later flowers. The male pollen connects with the female part of the flower and combines its genes with the female's genes to make a new seed. This is called 'pollination' or 'fertilisation', long words for plant sex. Some other plants (like maize, a member of the family of grasses) use the wind rather than insects to carry their pollen around. This pollen can travel a very long way.

If pollen from a GM plant happens to land on a plant of the same species which has not been genetically modified, it fertilises the unmodified plant just the same. But the GM genes will become part of the new seed. When the seed grows into a new plant, it may grow up to be just like its engineered parent. It will be contaminated. This is one of the main reasons many people object to GE plants because there is no way to stop this contamination - called gene flow - if the GMOs grow in open fields on a large scale (as they do)

Hope for the future?

Yes there is - if you and your friends do something. Genetic engineering could help people wipe out some diseases and could, in the right hands, help feed the world. But for the time being, I think people should go ahead slowly and cautiously. I don't think it's wise for millions of you people - especially young kids or babies - to be eating GE food without knowing it when it hasn't even been properly tested. And I don't think it's at all wise to be running these great 'experiments' in the open air on a huge scale. Both these things are already happening - in the US, Argentina, Canada, Australia and now China. But many other people in the world - particularly Europe and India - have woken up and want to stop being used as guinea pigs. There's already a big fight between ordinary 'guinea pig' people - who are now just called 'consumers' - and the companies, usually supported by their governments. I hope you 'guinea pig' folks win because if you don't, I'm not sure what will happen. But I don't think it will be very nice for anyone - including the people who run the companies. Even the most powerful man in the most powerful company is human and has to eat. And he probably has kids whom he cares about. Does he really want to use his own kids as guinea pigs too?

The bottom line

In the longer term I think some types of GE could be useful to people. It might mean new ways to cure diseases or to prevent them in the first place. But - and this is a very big BUT indeed! - all you people need to know what's happening and why. You need to get involved in thinking about whether GE (and other new human technologies) are good or bad... or if bits of them are good and other bits bad and dangerous. You also need to have a choice, to have a say in what is done or not done. You need to have proper labelling on the stuff you eat and drink so you know how it's made. Governments and companies tend to keep rather quiet about GE. After all, people can't object to things they don't know about. Now people are coming to realise just what's been going on and more and more want to put a stop to this secrecy. Don't you want to be involved in deciding the future of life on our planet? GE could affect natural life in all kinds of ways nobody yet knows. If companies release lots of GMOs and something goes terribly wrong, who pays for the damage? Can the damage be repaired? And who pays the bills? Please think carefully about what kind of a future you really want. Ask questions. Don't let others do your thinking for you! Don't leave it to the 'experts'!

Soria Raquel Inés

Just Me!! Raquel

Why do ppl want to fall in love?

Mi vida hasta ahora

Saving Lies for ourselves

Buenos Aires Players -

Pads, Paws and Claws

Happy birthday Hector!!

Mechanical Failure!!!

We are a market

We are a market

A POEM FOR THE NEW CLEAR;

This year so far.

monadas

Deshumanization in Brave New World.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Values

Good and Evil in Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Lord of the flies

Catrina and El niño both danderous desasters

This part of my life is called " the feeder"

Party Graduation

Coming to an end!!!

Out the blue!!

Saturday Night Live!!!

Food for Thought on Global Warming

Chilhood music

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The mistakes I shall try not to make when I become a parent

Wedding

Ramiro welcome to the family.

Diabetes

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Oh noooo not to the dentist again!!

La Tragedia Educativa - Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry

Too tired to sleep...

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What AIDS Means in a Famine

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1. HIV Does Not Discriminate

2. Oral Sex Is Not as Safe as You Think

3. There’s more to Worry About than Pregnancy

4. Sometimes People Hide the Truth / Sometimes People Don’t Know

5. HIV Kills and There is No Cure

The Selfish Giant

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A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

with illustrations by Charles Robinson

TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

Happy Prince by Osacar Wilde

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A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

with illustrations by Charles Robinson

The nightingale and the Rose

The Nightingale and the Rose

A Fairy Tale by Oscar Wilde

Transgenic Food

TRESPASSERS
WILL BE
PROSECUTED