Bombastic Busters

Blogging evaluation

2005-10-26T14:06:00.000-02:00

Well... Blogging wasn't quite what I expected, it wasn't so bad after all. =)
It was a great way of getting out of the classroom and inside the net.
I think my teacher's way of showing us more than grammar and vocabulary,made me feel freer and,in consequence, more interested in English classes.

I wouldn't say blogging improved my level of English. What I would say though, is that, the experience of posting and reading other people's blogs made me practice much more than I usually do.

In my opinion, we hadn't have english lessons only, but computer ones as well. I've learnt a lot about how to change the format of your blog and things like that.

In conclusion, this way of learning should be definetly repeated and I really do think it was usefull. But more freedom to write about the things we are passionate about would make the blog idea even more successfull!

Layoffs

2005-08-24T14:12:00.000-03:00

Many people are used to complain about their jobs all the time. But what to do, when you are layoff and you can't support your family anylonger?
That and other stories are told on this site where enemplyed people can write about their situation.

One story that got my attention was Clint Fiske's, a logger. He used to log for a company, when sometime three years ago. They had to do cut offs because the fees were to high. But the company found a way of fulling the government and everybody was rehired. Unfortunately for the company and everybody else, the government discovered the plot and closed the door on what Clint calls their "little game". After that, Fiske and other employees were laid off. On this site, Clint tells his new way of life and his feelings about it.

Anyway, I think everybody should check it out to have an idea of how does it feel to lose your job. It's not fun, trust me.

New words I learned: stumpagen (fee the coompany pays the government for the logs it removes)and logger (a lumberjack)

This Punk way of life...

2005-06-15T14:14:00.000-03:00

Fashion , Rebellion and different political ideas are words that come out of our heads when we think of Punk.
Punk Rock was the way found by British young people in the 70's found to express their anger against the system. To find out more about them, go check those sites out!

About Punk Fashion
http://www.fashion-era.com/punks_fashion_history1.htm#Punk%20Fashion%20in%20the%20Early%20Days%20of%20the%201970s

BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2601493.stm

Lyrics and the History of Punk
http://www.lyricsvault.net/history/punk.html

Rebels

2005-06-08T14:12:00.000-03:00

Being a rebel means going against society or laws that you don't agree with. An act of rebellion could be, for example,a student not doing his homework because he finds it useless. But usually acts of rebellion have more important meanings like women fighting for their rights in Afghanistan.

I'm a very calm person, but what makes me feel like rebelling is injustice. I have this NEED to defend people that is considered by some as one of my worst flaws. But I really don't care, it's a part of me and if I see someone being accused of something for no apparent reason I just can't control myself. Anything that goes against my principles id]s for me a good reason to rebel.

But I think there's too much fake rebels in this world. People that claim that are something and actually aren't. A good example is Chorão. Chorão is the lead singer of a Brazilian rock band. In his songs his always claiming to be poor and not caring about it and screw society. But it is society who gives him his pay checks, and he is pretty happy about it since he has become rich.

Well I guess the main difference between heroes and rebels is that heroes are selfless and rebels are usually thinking about their well being when doing acts of rebellion.

Anyway in my opinion rebelling is an important thing to do, as long as you have a reason for it.

Homosexuality and Prejudice

2005-05-18T14:25:00.000-03:00

Amanda Lee has her own personal blog. One of her posts got my attention. It's about homosexuality. There she gives her opinion about the matter and sustains the idea that your sexual preferences aren't important.
I find this topic very interesting and I think it's my turn to give an opinion about it. I really do agree with Amanda. People should stop judging each other. And to be honest, it frightens me a little bit that there's still people in the world throwing rocks at homosexuals. It is as stupid as criticizing someone for their color or religion.
Above all things, I believe in happiness. We should all find a way of being happy without hurting anyone on the way.
If someone's happier dating a person of the same sex, why should someone intrude? It's just unfair.
Why can't people mind their own business for once? Life is already complicated without prejudice.

Henry Moore

2005-05-11T14:20:00.001-03:00

Henry Moore is one of my favorite artists. Usually I prefer paintings, but his sculptures are amazing! You can look at them for hours and never get tired.

I'm pretty excited because we're going to the Pinacoteca to see his work. And I've never really seen them, so I just can't wait!

Well anyway, Henry Moore was born on 1898 and died on 1986. His sculptures aren't always clear, so you have to analyze them for several minutes in order to figure them out. And that's what's great about Moore's work, you can see several things in one sculpture.

I have linked a site, that tells everything that is to know about Henry Moore, on this post. So go check it out!

UPDATE

Our Visit to the Pinacoteca

So, Friday the 22nd we went to the Pinacoteca to see Henry Moore's expo. It was really interesting,not to mention really funny: We took a lot of pictures next to Moore's sculptures. And class' favorite was definitely "The King and the Queen"... Too bad we couldn't sit on their laps... Anyway, after that,we saw a little movie about Henry Moore's work according to himself.
It was a very good experience and I really enjoyed it!

A hero

2005-04-20T14:36:00.000-03:00

What is a hero anyway?

In my opinion, a hero is someone with strong character that is capable of doing things normal people wouldn't do. He doesn't have to be exceptionally strong or extremely handsome. But he has to be courageous.
And I don't mean courageous as in killing dragons and going to war. No,being courageous doesn't mean being fearless, but having the guts to do the right thing.
For example a woman that I met while doing volunteer work. Her name is Mariá das Cruzes and she is my personal hero.
Her daughter told me that once, a little girl (their neighbor) was really sick and in that poor town there were no hospitals. So, Mariá went to the Mayor's house and asked him to borrow his car so she could take the little girl to a hospital in another town. The Mayor helped them and the little girl was saved thanks to Mariá. She is my hero because she went out of her way to help someone else.
In conclusion I could say that everybody has a "hero potencial", we just have to explore it!

Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth by Dennis Malone Carter

2005-04-13T14:13:00.000-03:00

We have here a painting made by Dennis Malone Carter in 1854.
This painting portrays the story of a very brave woman called Molly, who participated at the American War of Independence.
In the background we can see the American soldiers who aren't very motivated. There's a lot of smoke and everything is gray and blue... Except for Molly who's in the middle wearing a red dress,holding a sort of a cannon cleaning stick, with the cannon right next to her and two men who seem the most motivated of the soldiers.
There's dead men everywhere and Molly seems to be leading the Americans in this battle.
In fact, Molly is considered a heroine because, during the Battle of Monmouth Court House in New Jersey (June 28, 1778)she repeatedly carried water to cool both cannons and the wounded soldiers. That's why she's called "Molly Pitcher".
The legend tells that when her husband, William Hays, collapsed because of the heat of that day, Molly took his place at the cannons serving for the remainder of the battle.
Molly Pitcher is reminded, until today, as the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth.

George and the Dragon

2005-04-06T14:25:00.000-03:00

I'm here to tell you a story about a brave man and a strange beast.
Once upon a time, in a far, far away kingdom there was a terrible dragon killing everything and everyone. The folks of that remote town offered him a sheep and a virgin everyday so it would stop.
Unfortunately the girl was chosen by lottery and one day, it happened that the lot fell on the King´s daughter.
Desperate, the King offered to the people of that kingdom a lot of money and land if they spared his child. But they refused.
So it was with great grief that the King sent his daughter to sacrifice wearing a wedding gown.
But a man called George heard about that story and went there to save the princess. He bravely fought the monstrouos dragon and charged it on horseback with his spear and gave it a grievous wound.
He saved the princess' life, but did not kill the dragon. He brought it to the town and he would kill it if the people consented to become Christians and be baptised.
They agreed and George killed the dragon.

Nice story huh? In class, we saw a painting about it. The painting had George killing the dragon and in the background, the princess wearing her wedding gown.

More information on:
http://www.knyght.co.uk/My%20Webs/HISTORY/6dragon.htm
http://www.knyght.co.uk/My%20Webs/HISTORY/6A.htm

Europe and Italy

2005-03-23T14:10:00.001-03:00

We have here a flash animation made by Bruno Bozzeto:
http://www.bozzetto.com/bio/biography

It tells the story of how Italians are different from the other Europeans, as if they weren't Europeans at all.
Bozzetto shows the different attitudes of stereotyped Italians and the stereotyped European in common situations.
For example, there's a situation when they show Europeans asking for coffee. All of them ask for regular coffee. Then, the Italians in the same situation start asking for all kinds of coffee, with cream, no cream, American, Italian, large,small, etc.
In another "scene",Bozzetto shows the way Europeans do sports; they are very athletic and really capable. When it's the Italians turn, and, instead of doing exercises, the Italians are shown watching TV.
In general Bozzetto says by the animation that Italians have no consideration for the others (for example when there's a No-smoking area and they start smoking there just because they can't).
In my opinion artists have a very special way to combine humour and tease all at the same time making an animation flash very amusing and instructive too.
All I can say is...
The animation achieves ends in pasta! That means that at the final scene, the Europeans and the Italians are mixed up and became a plate of spaghetti.
I found this little animation hilarious and thought that people can't be mad or offended by it because it's just a big joke, even because the creator is Italian!

Old people, young people

2005-03-05T19:32:00.000-03:00

Old people, young people...
What's the difference really? I mean, old people were young and young people will get old... what makes them different is just time and experience.
I can't believe that elderly people simply forget they were young and that young people (including me) think they rule the world and they know everything. It's something we have to work on...

Don't wory, be happy ;)

2005-03-02T14:16:00.001-03:00

As the Bob Marley's song says, don't worry about what the others think of you.Be happy as you are.
In our society people make those stereotypes of how girls should be very thin and blond with blue eyes... they put the higher standards and for no good reason we try to follow them! Why's that?
What's important, in my opinion, is to feel well about yourself. If you think that you need to lose a few pounds because that's disturbing you, than lose them! But if you feel ok about yourself, there's no point in trying to change.
Becoming blond won't make you more interesting! Everybody has their own peculiar way of beauty, it's a shame that we try to look alike everybody else. Forget about stereotypes, people!!! Blond girls are just as beautiful as brunettes, so stop complaining about all the wrong things about your body! Instead, look at the good things about you and thank God (or Buda, or Allah or whatever)that you weren't born without your ears or arms. =)
And if you don't have any ears or arms...well i'm sorry about my analogy!
But hey!!! What really matters isn't your outside looks but what's inside!
So forget about stereotypes!!! DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY! ;)

About English classes and Duane Hanson

2005-02-22T22:10:00.000-03:00

Well, right now we're studying stereotypes. Two classes ago we started that topic and as exercise we found weird stereotypes about the Brazilians and the French. For example: "People who live on France are stinky" or "Brazilians are uneducated".
Stereotypes are ways of including people in a same group, they can be positive or negative, but one thing is for sure: they are never true. We simply can't define
and over-generalize people like this.

Today, we pursued our epic discussion about the famous stereotypes!
We saw this great guy that makes sculptures about every-day people called Duane Hanson. He was born in Minnesota,USA on January the 17th 1925 and died on January 6th 1996 in Boca Raton, Florida.
He describes the masses, their loneliness, their isolation
and despair, with deeply sorrowful humour.
"The 'people'(sculptures) are so ordinary and living such ordinary lives that are
borderline boring. This aspect is what makes them so incredible.
they are mostly overweight, unattractive, and dirty."
http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii08200.htm

I found some sites about Duane Hanson and his work it's worth to check them out.
Here they are:

http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii08200.htm (about D. Hanson)
http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/duanehanson.html (some pictures about his work)
http://www.psmuseum.org. (other pictures and explanation about Hanson's art)

That's it for today!

The first post

2005-02-16T14:20:00.000-02:00

ok,
I've never done a blog before nor intended to... but here I am doing this for an English project.
anyway... I will update it with things I find interesting, amusing, etc etc etc...
If you have any idea for this weblog please let me know!!!
thanx xxx!