Blue eyes

I am going to write a few words about myself, and I am going to explain the reason why I chose the title "Behind blue eyes" for this blog. You will see it is not big deal at all.
First of all, I have blue eyes, but that is not why I chose the name, at least not directly. I remember that some time before starting this blog I watched a film called "Gothika" starred by Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz. In the soundtrack there was a song I really liked, and still like. The song is called "Behind blue eyes" by Limp bizkit, and that is all about the name of the blog.
"Behind blue eyes" makes me think about the importance of valuing people by what they really are and not only by their appearance. In these days where how you look is so important that can cause severe problems, mainly to younger people, it is good to have something that remains you what is really important to focus on. My blog's title reminds me that.
I am sure that everybody has met somebody really good-looking at some point in their lives, but when you know them a bit deeper you realize that you do not like them at all. That is because beauty is a superficial thing, and only catches your attention for a while (at first sight). I know that sometimes is hard to beat the spell of beauty, and I also know that it is also possible that somebody is beautiful on the surface, and in the inside. We should not think that somebody is not worthy because of their physical beauty. We should just try to know people for a while before making an impression of them.
I am not really worried about what people think about me when they look at me, however I am more concerned about what people's opinion is about me when they know me a bit better than just the first impression. But that is right just if we are talking about people I respect, and who made a good impression on me.
Another reason to name my blog the way I did is because I usually write my opinions, and those reflect how I see the world through my eyes, my blue eyes.
I will let you watch the video of the song that inspired the title of this blog. You can click on this link to watch it.

French

I have been trying to learn French for a while. I cannot say that I was successful until now. However, I think that this is about to change. I found a really interesting, and useful online resource. It is a webpage where you can find several tools to help you in the process of learning different languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, etc. I find particularly helpful the Coffee Break course where you can learn easily trough 15 to 20 minutes lessons in audio mp3 format.

I started this course about a week ago, and I listened to first 10 lessons. I recalled a lot of what I learnt when I was in high school (I attended French classes then, but we could not practice conversation because our teacher was not a native speaker, and her level was far from good).
In my opinion, the best way to encourage a student to learn something is showing practical use of the concepts and theory explained. When regarding to language learning, practical use means making conversation.
My first French lessons were boring and almost painful, and I never felt capable of writing or speaking anything more than basic expressions (merci, bonjour, je m'appelle, au revoir, and a few more), and my reading skills are not much better.
After ten lessons, I am looking forward to listen to the next one to learn more things about French language, to increase my confidence, and I hope that in a few months I will be speaking, and writing using French, like I do in English.
I would like you to visit this page, because I am 100% sure that it is a valuable resource if you are interested in French learning. Besides, I think it is fair to advertise their site considering how helpful it is to me. If you want to learn other languages you can try the home page, where they have lessons in other languages.
To sum up, I hope these resources help you to find the right path for you in language learning. As far as I am concerned, I can finally say "Je parle un peu de franÇais". Hopefully, in a while I will know how to say "I know a lot of French", and it will be true. Anyway, I intent to keep writing in English in this blog.

À la prochaine.

Communication media

I have just seen my blog's statistics for the first time, and I am really surprised. My blog has been read in several locations all over the world, including USA, Germany, Japan or Russia. Something like that would have been inconceivable just about thirty years ago (at the time when I was born). However, these days you can publish anything you want to, and in a matter of seconds it will be available worldwide.
Regular people become immensely famous throughout the globe just publishing, for example, a video in Youtube. Sometimes, people watch the video because it is funny, or it shows somebody's talent, or even somebody's lack of it. You can also publish pictures, music, writings, or anything else you can save in electronic format.
On one hand, there are thousands of applications that allow us to communicate in any imaginable way over the Internet. On the other hand, communication issues among people are increasing. We can see everyday in the news the problems caused because the lack of understanding between different cultures, different gender or skin color, or different governments.
All the facts commented above make me think carefully about that, and it really seem confusing, even paradoxical. I am sure that the explanation to this behavior is not that simple, but I consider that people do not use all the power of communication media available to them to get to know better to other people, to share with them their thoughts about things really important, or to look for commonly accepted solutions to real problems.
To sum up, communication media are just the tool, and the way we use them is what really matters. As far as I am concerned, I am really happy to see that people from such different locations visit my blog. I would also love to see their opinions and comments.

The experiment

I am not an expert in lab experiments, but in this post they gave me the inspiration I needed. Apparently, when lab technicians are trying to find a new vaccine, or new antibiotics, they use microscopic living organisms in order to carry out their research. After observing the behavior of these small participants in different environments and situations, the scientists have to obtain conclusions. During the experiments the main characters are these tiny creatures, and they are going to continue being the stars if the tests succeed, and they become a new drug, maybe a cure for a deadly disease.
Consider this crazy theory. What if we are also an experiment. We would be that tiny creatures, and the world as we know it, the universe, would be the space where the experiment takes place. It looks like a crazy thought, but I think that the microorganisms involved in the experiments conducted in labs are not aware of the lab technicians, or aware of their intentions.
Continuing with this hypothesis, what kind of experiment would be our universe? Are we going to be successful or just another failed test?
After a second thought, it could be a little consolation thinking that maybe all the wars, fights and hate in the world are just part of our genes and our purpose in life is to help others to find out something important, even if we do not know anything about it.

New Year's resolutions (IV)

Again, like one year ago, here I am in front of my computer reading my last year's resolutions, and figuring out if I carried out all my plans for last year. I will try to finish quickly in order to go back to bed, and to sleep a few hours more. My feet feel awful, therefore I guess I will be much better in bed.
It was not a really bad year after all. However, there are a lot of things that I would improve if I had the chance. I was not able to take French learning seriously, but I trust that I will do, eventually. Although I could not travel abroad this year, I am willing to do it again soon. I would love to enjoy the atmosphere in Irish pubs again, and visit other countries that remain unknown to me.
One of my biggest achievements during 2011 was obtaining the official EOI certification in English, and I am proud of getting it in my first attempt. I am aware of the fact that writing in this blog has been really helpful to pass the exams. I have been writing regularly here, and my idea is keep it that way. It would be fantastic if in one year from now the number of posts exceeded one hundred.
I left the gym after being injured for a couple of months, and I did not come back. Nonetheless, I continued doing a lot of exercise (running and cycling, basically). The fact that we had a much longer than usual summer season was the perfect excuse to do workout outdoors. It is much more fun than going to gym, and it is also much healthier. Besides, It gave me the chance to spend more time with some of my friends.
I have met a lot of people during last year, and made a few new friends too.
After considering all last year's achievements, I have just one resolution for the year that has just started. I will try to put all my effort in getting what I want, and do not give up easily, because I know I can do it better. I have 365 days ahead to prove it, and I do not want to regret for not having done something. To begin with, I am going to sleep a bit more, otherwise I will regret it tomorrow.

WUI

-Why is it so difficult for you? I mean, you only have three or four choices. It can't be so hard to choose.
-Well, I will try to explain it to you, but it won't be easy. In fact, I don't really understand it myself.
-Ok, I'm listening.
-Sure. Let me start asking you a question. It is not necessary you answer it, I'll do it.
What would you choose if you knew that there's no good choice, not good and evil, just a bad choice, no matter you decide?
-That's a difficult one, but...
-Don't bother. I told you I would answer it, and then you can tell me if you agree.
-Ok, keep going.
-I remember some tests I had to pass when I was studying. Sometimes, there was an option: none of the above. I'd love to have this option when we go to the polls. Oddly, when I found that option in the exams, it was a symptom of how hard the test was. Now, it is always hard for me to choose because there is not that option.
-So, you think it would be easier if we didn't choose.
-No, I'm saying that I'd like to have the opportunity to say NO to politicians. Why don't they allow us to do that? Is it because they are scared?.
-Now, I understand your position, and I have to say that I am sure they are really frightened about the idea of losing all the privileges they acquired along these years (working as "public servants"). And, of course, I agree. I would be one of them if I didn't.

This dialog is not an actual conversation, it is more a reflection of my thoughts about politicians, and the upcoming elections. I am going to hate these couple of weeks ahead. The political campaign has just started and I am already pissed off. I think it is a waste of time and money. Money that it is supposed to be invested in important things like trying to avoid people to be evicted from their homes, taking care of education and health care system, etc.
However, being realistic, would you care about problems that you do not suffer? Perhaps, but probably no, or at least not the same way you would care if they affected you. That is the problem with politicians, they have no real problems because they are special. Therefore, we should consider the possibility that they are not trying to find a solution to our problems. It is not their fault, either they do not see the problems or they do not really understand them, and you need to see and understand a problem to solve it.

P.S. I must clarify that I wrote this post under the influence (WUI) of Sinatra. I cannot believe it, I have listening Sinatra's songs for the last half an hour. I can tell that his music helped me to relax while expressing my opinions about this topic.

Paths

It is hard to choose a route among lots of them when you do not know your final destination. Some people trust their "guts" or their instinct, others act randomly, and others like me, try to think about the best or right way to follow. In my opinion, last option is the most naive because we do not have enough information, or any relevant information at all, even when we think we do.
Sometimes, we can get some sort of information about it from our older relatives or friends based in their experience, but they are just basic rules to make the journey more secure and comfortable, and those tips are not going to help us to find the meaning of life.
In my opinion, a device like a enhanced GPS would help us to make the right decisions during our existence. Such a device would tell us if we should play football or basketball at school, be obedient to our parents or not, to go to the university or to start working at an early age, to be a believer or to join atheism, to get married or to avoid a future divorce, to have kids, to look for a new job or to continue doing something that you do not really like while you get paid for it. Those are some of our biggest concerns, and we usually think a lot about them before making a decision, but very often we apparently do not make the right one (if we can ever know what are the right choices).
As far as I am concerned, the most interesting question to answer at this point is whether our choices matter or not at all in relation to the final result. Are our choices in life defining where we are heading, or it is true that all roads lead to Rome?
We can also think that it is more important to enjoy the journey than to focus on the destination. This is smart because we do not know how interesting the end of the journey is going to be.
There is one more thing I would like to write about this journey. Apparently, there are different kinds of fares because there are a lot of people suffering a lot during their existence, while others live like kings. And this is not always because of their choices, it can just be a birthright.
All in all, life is what it is, it is a mystery for us. At least, it is a mystery for me. And, it is perhaps better if it continues being that way. It could be like a magic trick when it is unveiled. Once revealed, there is not way back, and the magic is gone.