The Acropolis of Athens

"But if the earth ends in fire

And the seas are frozen in time

There'll be just one survivor

The memories of our lifetime"

"Immortal" - Marina And The Diamonds

For today's task, we had to look for a place we'd like to visit in the Unesco World Heritage List (UWHL) and describe it explaining why we'd want to be there. I chose the Acropolis of Athens. In Ancient Greece, an Acropolis was an elevated part of the city-state (polis) where people could spend time praying in several temples; in Athens, its most known one is the Parthenon.

The reason why I would like to visit the Acropolis of Athens is that I find Ancient Greek culture very interesting and indubitably a part of human philosophy we need and we're missing. I also love how Ancient Greek architecture expresses the ideal of beauty and harmony its culture professed.

The Acropolis of Athens was inscribed in 1987 as cultural site. Its official page in the Unesco can be found in this link.

Time to fight for men's rights

"Is there any possibility
You'll quit gossiping about me
To hide your insecurities?
All you say is "blah, blah"

Girls they never befriend me
'Cause I fall asleep when they speak
Of all the calories they eat
All they say is "na na na na na" (na na na na na)"

"Girls" - Marina And The Diamonds
       

Well, I come from taking a look at the most absurd law in all of Europe. It's Spanish, as it couldn't be any other way, and it's called LIVG or Ley Integral contra la Violencia de Género (Integral Law against Gender Abuse, for non-Spanish friends). For its name, it sounds good... What am I saying? Good? It sounds GREAT! The Above Lie bless LIVG!... Oh, wait, then "why would Heather call it absurd?" Sit back, relax and see... And better take some sandwich because this is going to be LONG.

Let's imagine the following situation: a healthy relationship, without any kind of abuse: John and Martha. John and Martha have two children: Britney and Marina (such original names); Marina loves her father and Britney spends a lot of time with both John and Martha. Let's say now Martha knows another man, Spencer. Martha and Spencer fall in love with each other and she decides it's time to express her feelings to John and the girls: the three understand the woman and, sad, John accepts divorce. Let's now say John loves Martha too much and doesn't want to divorce; then Martha asks for a lawyer's help. Since they're in Spain, the lawyer looks for a way to benefit his client... CHARGE JOHN WITH GENDER ABUSE! Regretful, Martha is waiting for the judge to identify the lawyer's lie, but... what does LIVG say about this?

It DOES happen

• The woman's accusation is enough to send the man to preventive prison for 48 hours, which already counts as criminal record and disallows him to get certain jobs and degrees/courses. This happens before checking if it's a false accusation.
• The man's presumption of innocence is not applicable, which means he's taken as guilty whether there are evidences or not.
• The man's statements and defense are not valuable. The only factors that condition the penalty are the woman's accusation.
• There is no penalty for false accusations.
• LIVG doesn't work if a man is being abused by a woman; however, if a man accuses a woman for gender abuse and the woman, without any evidence, says it's a false accusation, it will probably be taken as of it and the abused man will be sent to prison.

So, thanks to LIVG, our poor John is sent to preventive prison and loses his job and university certification. When he's sent out, the sentence forces him to abandon all possessions (home, car, ...) as well as Britney and Marina's tutelage to Martha. He's also forced to pay a monthly rent to her. He's now homeless, unemployed and unable to rebuild a stability. He finally commits suicide. Regretful, Martha, seeing what her lawyer has done, does as well. Britney and Marina are given to another family, with the ever-chasing trauma of witnessing their parents' suicide. Good job, Spain, you just arranged a family! That law is JUST WHAT THEY NEEDED TO BE ALL HAPPY! You might think this is an exaggerated example of what happens with LIVG... but no, this literally happens.
    

But this only affect Spanish people, doesn't it? Well, this afternoon I've seen a video of a man ignoring his woman in "Kiss Cam" (a U.S.-made thing you should get information about because I'm too lazy to explain). By the third time Kiss Cam showed the pair and the man ignored her, the mascot picked her and, for its actuation all along, I would say it was saying something like "I'm gonna make her happy". Everyone else agreed and laughed and nobody acted like it was wrong at all...

Let's imagine the next situation: a woman is ignoring her man while being shown on Kiss Cam, even though he's showing his eagerness to kiss while shown. During the third time this happens, a woman appears, picks the man and says "I'm gonna make him happy". Can you guess what would be the reaction of people? Exactly, beer cans and hot dogs thrown to them and the words "whore", "bitch", "cheater" and "bastard" becoming the new anthem of the game!

But, if I was going to put examples of all ambits (which I AM NOT since, as I said, Heather be too lazy to use "to be" correctly) we'd be just getting started! Yeah, women have been suffering really hard and, in some cases, they're still to get equality, but we should not accept this kind of chauvinism. Because it's not feminism anymore; it's REPULSIVE, AWFUL AND UNRESPECTFUL CHAUVINISM. If you want respect, respect others first; thanks.

Shakespeare's biography

"But with all my education I can’t seem to command it
And the words are all escaping, and coming back all damaged
And I would put them back in poetry if I only knew how
I can’t seem to understand it"

"All This And Heaven Too" - Florence + The Machine
   

William Shakespeare, considered the greatest writer in the English language, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. During his lifetime, he wrote 38 plays, 154 sonets and some other poems. He is best known for his plays, which have been translated to every major language.

He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old, and they had three children. After he went to London to work as an actor and as a writer, the Globe Theater was built, in 1599, near the river Thames; it was where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed. 14 years later the theater was destroyed by a fire.

Shakespeare is still known all over the world nowadays, maybe because of the fantastic element of his stories or the action in them...

Source: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/read-uk/shakespeare

How to make real life interesting

"It's for the kids who have low self esteem
They've got no concept of reality
Living their lives inside a fantasy
'Cause they have troubled minds, troubled minds

Wipe the white golden dust into these broken hands
Must depend on a friend that will understand
Like the glitter making love to the gleam
Just remember things aren't always what they seem"

"Troubled Minds" - Marina And The Diamonds 

Boom! The 21st century has arrived! We've spent the last two decades letting our teens get stuck in videogames, porn and the Internet and now it's time to eat the feces of our mistake: our teens have been trapped in fantasies, letting go of reality and leaving their dreams rot in the hell of actual existence. Now most guys (and some girls) have their manga/anime imaginary boyfriend or girlfriend and, obviously, since everything is inside their computers, why should they ever go out of their room or get a job? That way, life before 30 consists basically on testing how long your parents can keep you alive. It might seem legitimate at first, but, in most cases, your parents are neither a money factory nor immortal entities, so keeping that lifestyle long enough is pretty impossible unless you can survive as a vagabond... and if you've reached that

I'm on my way :_D !

point you probably can't survive without a computer.

So, how to get out of that circle of destruction and virtual sexual attributes? Easy: find a reason to stay in real life! If you like drawings of girls with big breasts or boys with big muscles, try to create them yourself! If you like songs, try to compose one! Mix what you like about your fantasy and make it real! Slowly, you'll start to appreciate other things out there: one day, instead of drawing a bulky furry maybe you'll want to draw an actual animal (which doesn't mean all furry artists are troubled... but if you're under 18 and drawing porn, YOU ARE)! Instead of writing a love story maybe you'll find your own! Giving it a try can only give positive results whatsoever!

"So, how do I start?" Once you've spent enough time in it, getting out of the trap requires some adaptment, just to dare to step into reality. So, after finding a hobbie to make real life get some appeal and making it come true, apart from keeping it up, what should we do? Well, that's the hard part: you'll have to get rid of the toxic part of that lifestyle: try to spend less time playing videogames, on the Internet, watching manga/anime and, if you're underage, absolutely no porn. Masturbation is healthy, but it gets even healthier if you use your imagination, so give it a try.

"Hey, what if I'm OK with this? Can't I just carry on?" Of course! In its measure, all those modern life idiosyncrasies can be harmless; just make sure you're aware if it messes up with your life and social relations! Videogames, anime and the Internet can be actually good and healthy... just remember porn can't, regardless of your age, and so the rest if abused.

And if you still wonder why I said that about pornography, I think you should check this out:

The best moments of Christmas holidays!

"My loneliness is killing me

I must confess I still believe

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign"

"... Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears
 

There aren't many times one can really enjoy their school work, and this Christmas I found myself doing one of those special homework tasks that can make your imagination flow freely enough to let you smile, cry, fall in love and get angry with your own characters.

This concrete work consisted in five pages of an imaginated character's personal diary. I chose to write from the perspective of a tiger girl who lives in the Rool Woods, near a city where humans live. Alone in the woods, she finds the diary, which quickly becomes her only way to express her feelings. Even though, she's about to discover she's maybe not the only animal-human in the Rool Woods... I normally don’t care about these kinds of things, but I hope our Catalan teacher enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

So it was that Catalan work that made these holidays truly especial! I really hope there'll be more of this kind of things in the rest of this school year!

My 2015 resolutions

"I wish I had one good reason why
I should stay
How'd I get myself
Into this place?
I wish had qualities like
Sympathy
Fidelity
Sobriety
Sincerity
Humility
Instead I got lunacy"

"Cheryl Tweedy" - Lily Allen

2014 hasn't been a good year whatsoever, and 2015 brings plenty of new possibilities and hopes that I would like to profit! That means a quite big effort from my own... and maybe a little of help from others, but what it sure means is a good year!

So, to make 2015 even more interesting, here's the list of resolutions I want to achieve:

• Gain weigh. I want to be curvy, that's for sure. The huge problem is that, before I start my transition, fat goes to places it shouldn't be! So, for now, it's quite hard to get weigh without getting complexes in the way... So, in order to achieve that, I have some strategies:

Just two years, eigth months and thirteen days!

• The best option to not get complexes from the mirror: not looking at it! So, obviously, I can't get blind every time I'm in front of the mirror, but I can just not pay attention to it. I can do nothing to help how my body distributes my fat right now, so maybe the best option is to ignore the issue until I can actually help it.

• Waiting would help too. Maybe I should just admit I can't achieve this in 2015... actually, not until late 2017! So perhaps I'll just not gain until I get that beauty-beauty Meghan Trainor deals about in "All About That Bass"...

• The fastest but hardest and most harsh one: getting over it! I can't just think about the bad side of things and ignore the good one because I'll get neurotic sooner or later in life, I have to ignore the bad side and get all these things over with!

• Stop trying to make others happy. To be happy with my social identity, I have to make sure I get assertive. My way of relating so far, based on passivity and self-slavery for the sake of my friends, has been undeniably frustrating and it's time to be something more than just a ego-rising pet.

• I need to learn to say "no". I have to make my ideas and opinions 'important': not imposing them, but letting my friends know they exist and they are sometimes different than theirs.

• I'll have to find my own happiness! I can't depend on others just to stay alive, so I have to look for a way of happiness and entertainment that involves me, just me and only me.

• I have to get myself thinking "I'm worth it". It might seem silly, but I would really swear this problem comes from my lack of self esteem, so I should focus on it!

• Not make any resolutions! The easiest way of success is not thinking about it, and having plenty of things to do is quite depressing...

• So the best way to do this is relaxing, taking a deep breath and taking a long look at my capacities. That way I'll know what I can want myself to do and what I'll have to admit I can't. If I expect too much from me, probably I will get positively ambitious... and probably I'll just want to give up on absolutely everything in life, so it'll be much better to take it easy and do what I can do!

• Maybe being ambitious is way better than taking it easy! I think I'd maybe get some more goals: impossible ones, hard ones, challenging ones; of course! And if I fail, I will try another!

• Even better: accept "impossible" resolutions to find other ones in the way!