My name is Blog, James Blog

Italy

2012-05-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hello, bloggers! Today, I am going to introduce the most important monuments and places to see in three of the most important cities in Italy: Venice, Florence and Rome.

I will start with Venice. As you know, Venice is a group of islands separated by canals and joined by a lot of bridges. The most important canal is the Grand Canal, which crosses the city. In Venice, people move in boats, gondolas or vaporettos (water buses) as there are no cars, motorbikes or bicycles. One of the most important places to visit is the Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark’s Square) in which you can see the Basilica, the Palazzo Ducal and some museums. Anther place that you can’t miss when going to Venice is the Rialto’s Bridge. But the best thing you can do in Venice is walk through its streets and admire the beautiful buildings of the city.

Our next stop is Florence. Florence is also a very beautiful city, but in a different way than Venice. Florence is important due to its architecture because in this city there are a lot of very beautiful museums, churches and buildings. There is also a very famous sculpture: the David of Michelangelo. It is 5.17m tall and you can find it in the Galleria della Academia. In Florence, you can visit the Cathedral, which was built in green, red and white marble with a lot of details. Another church that is very important and beautiful is Santa Croce’s Church. Also, you can visit the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), which is one of the most known symbols of this city.

We end our journey in the capital of Italy: Rome. Rome is much bigger than Venice and Florence and it has many more things to see. One of the most important is the coliseum. The coliseum is an amphitheatre, the biggest one that the Romans built during the Roman Empire. As you visit Rome, you will notice that there are a lot of fountains everywhere. The most important is the Fontana di Trevi. A lot of tourists go there every year to throw a coin in as they make a wish. Also, you can visit Vatican city, which is not exactly in Rome, but it is very near. There, you will be able to see Saint Peter’s Basilica, where all the Popes are buried, and the Sistine Chapel, which has a lot of beautiful paintings.

Finally, I invite you to visit this country and don’t forget to eat a lot of pizza, pasta and ice cream.

Skydiving

2012-05-13T14:35:00.002-07:00

Have you ever thought of falling through the sky at great speeds? It sounds exciting, right? This sport is called skydiving and consists of jumping from planes at very high heights, only helped by a parachute, or an instructor if it’s your first time. People see this extreme sport as very dangerous, but few people die. Mortality rates in the US are 1 person per 150,000 people that jump out of a plane.

There are also variants of this sport, like wing suit flying, that consists of jumping with a special suit that allows the jumper to glide, or sky surfing, that is exactly what it sounds like: surfing in the sky. A strange variant of it is called stuff jumping and consists of jumping out of a plane with, for example, a motorcycle or a rubber raft.

I encourage you to try it, but this sport is also very expensive, because you have to rent a plane and all of the equipment. In conclusion, this is a great sport full of emotions and adrenaline. Here are some videos:

Skysurfing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBrncHJLSlU

Wingsuit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBirCbODshQ&feature=fvst

AROMATIC PLANTS

2012-05-08T09:27:00.002-07:00

Hello, my bloggers! How was your long weekend? Amazing, wasn’t it? Today I’m going to speak about my two favorite aromatic plants. Did you know that the aromatic plants are used for many things? Indeed, they are. For example, they provide some special flavor in the kitchen. They are also used in cosmetics, perfumes, and some kind of medicine. I have always liked these kinds of plants because they amaze me with all of their properties.

My two favorite aromatic plants are Mint and Lemon balm.

We can find mint in the Mediterranean and in China. As we can see, it can grow almost everywhere. However, it is better to plant it in wet land. Its incredible flavor and texture are very useful in some recipes and it goes really well with chocolate. This plant has very interesting properties: It is digestive and it relieves nausea. WARNING! Do not eat it after dinner; it will not allow you to sleep.

Lemon balm is my second favorite aromatic plant. We can find it throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. Lemon balm is mostly used in medicine due to its properties. It has relaxing properties, and thus it is used in some infusions for better sleep. As we can deduce, it has soothing properties. It is also digestive and healing. It is also used in toothpaste.

That’s all, my friends! But, tell me, what about you? Do you have some favorite aromatic plant? Do you know something about them? Leave your opinion in the comments. Bye!

Nirvana

2012-04-01T13:52:00.004-07:00

Hello my bloggers! How was your weekend? I hope it was really good! Today I’m going to talk about one of the most important music groups of grunge. They were active from the latest 80’s to the early 90’. Yes my friends, we are speaking about NIRVANA.

Last week (February 20th) would have been Kurt Cobain’s 45th birthday. If you don’t know this group, probably you will be wondering who he was. He was the singer of NIRVANA. He was born in Seattle in the year 1967. He had his first guitar when he was 14. He loved music more than other abilities like sport. When he was in the high school he wanted to form a band, but he didn’t find what he was expecting. Finally, after many drummers, he found the one he liked. And in 1991 the good NIRVANA was founded when they published their album Nevermind. However, Kurt, didn’t like the idea of all the people listening their songs if they didn’t feel them. With that and many other problems, on the 5th of April in 1994 he was found dead in his house. In consequence, NIRVANA never returned again. Even though time has passed, he was considered in 2003 by the Rolling Stones magazine the 12th of 100 best guitarists in history. It doesn’t stop there, he was also considered the 45th best singer out of 100 greatest singers ever.

If you like the topic, here I leave some of the most famous songs of this fantastic group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8

Another one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg&ob=av3e

As Kurt would have said: I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

This is all! I hope you liked it! Bye!

GYMNASTICS IN OUR CITY, SORIA.

2012-03-25T12:55:00.002-07:00

Hello bloggers! I’m going to talk to you about the sport I practice and how it is organised here in Soria. I think it is very interesting to know more about sports and about what they are like from the inside, not only what we see in the exhibitions, so here I’m going to give you some information about my favourite sport.

In our city there are two gymnastic clubs, one is called “Club Deportivo Gimnasia Soria” and the other “Club Deportivo Duero” .These two groups used to be part of “Club Deportivo Numancia”, a bigger one that not only included gymnastics, but also had football, basketball, volleyball, hockey…

Well, going back again to my topic, my club “Gimnasia Soria”, I’m going to explain what it consists of and how we prepare for our competitions and exhibitions.

Our team is divided into two types of gymnastics: aerobic and rhythmic. It is made up of 140 children aged between 5 and 18. Our training begins in august and lasts until the season ends, which is usually around May or June. But don’t think this sport is just about being flexible, this sport requires a lot of training and perseverance. You must be able to prepare all the elements that together will form part of your dancing. This also requires, apart from flexibility, concentration and strength. But not only that, we also have to consider our trainers’ work. They have to do a lot of things, first when the season starts they have to organise al the new and old club members. Then they have to choose the music for each performance and later design all their leotards. But that’s not all, they also have to federate each person who is going to compete. Then in our exhibitions and competitions all the years’ work is shown, that’s why it’s so intense.

I hope you have found this piece of information about gymnastics in Soria interesting. If you know other clubs, I’d like to know more about them!

Stupid concert

2012-03-19T10:10:00.004-07:00

Welcome to the opening concert of “my name is blog James blog”. Today I’m going to teach you all the stupid things that can happen at a concert. Please, turn off your mobiles; the director had just appeared at the scene. He´s there to make the job of the musicians a bit more difficult just by using his hands.

But don´t underestimate the dangers of the director‘s work. The famous French director Lully died because he refused to cut his foot after hitting it with his metal baton while directing.

The music is starting. Get ready for the most hilarious play of the history of music. Imagine the director so happy directing with his eyes closed and suddenly, one by one, all the musicians start standing up and getting down from the scene. Yes, it´s the “farewell “symphony wrote by Haydn as an objection against the musicians' salary. But it isn’t the only musical joke of this composer: it is the second movement of a symphony. The music is sweet and calm, so slow, everybody is getting sleepy ....and suddenly the gong sounds so strong. Any of these horrible people would fall asleep again in the second movement of this surprise symphony.

And finally the” interrupted intermezzo” by Bartok. In this concerto the clarinet would clearly be confused and all the other instruments would start laughing at it by copying its errors. Even the tube and the oboe. But they shouldn’t, seeing that they are the instruments of which there are more jokes about (but not the only ones as the musicians are people that love them most, laughing at themselves).

For example, the oboes are well known for sounding like ducks, the sopranos for being incredibly narcissistic or the viola for being bad violinists. This is confirmed in the play in “Peter and the Wolf” where the oboe represents the duck.

Never forget the technical problems for a proper and surprising end of a concert. It is always a good moment for having a very obvious mistake while paying. But don’t get nervous, instead look at someone else and nobody will notice it was you.

Jumpstyle

2012-03-08T10:29:00.006-08:00

You have probably heard about this type of modern dancing or have seen it, but do you know its story, how to dance it or about its popularity?

Jumpstyle is a developed form of oldschool, hardcore dance from the beginning of the 90s. The Jumpstyle appeared like a musical genre in Belgium and Holland during 1997 and it was played in discos by the oldschool boys. Initially, it wasn´t very popular and it didn´t have great success, however, through the next years jumpstyle began to be danced by a group of boys called “The Jumpers” in Holland, and its sophisticated and elegant style was rapidly adopted in the country over next two years. In 2006, with the first contests in Holland, France, Spain and Russia popularised the dance and it travelled from Holland to all of Europe. Jumpstyle is nowadays “conquering” North America and Australia.

You can find Jumpstyle in your own city too, there are little groups of boys called “Jumpers”, who can be seen near your house, in your high-school (I have seen people in my high-school who are thirteen years old dancing), or in your city´s square. Sometimes in Facebook you receive an invitation for an event to take part in a big concentration of jumpstyle in a huge city. These concentrations take place in mostly the biggest squares of the cities, nearing up to 10,000 people dancing at the same time.

Although it seems easy, it is a complicated dance and you must control your movements in a precise way so as not to fall or to get lost. The first thing you may learn while dancing jumpstyle is to warm up your legs for 10 minutes as it requires a high concentration and flexibility of your legs. I´m sure you are thinking that arms are not necessary… you are wrong. When you are dancing jumpstyle the coordination of movements between the opposite arm from the leg you are moving makes the “magic” in this dance. When you have finished of warning up you can look for Patrick Jumpen's website and learn how to dance it with tutorial videos.

I am now practising to dance Jumpstyle, and it is really difficult! Would you like to dance jumpstyle? Here you are two videos I like!

Erik Johansson and his optical illusions.

2012-03-05T03:54:00.010-08:00

Could you imagine a house lifted up by four strings? And could you imagine a fish whose upper part is an island? Or could you imagine a scissor dividing the ground and a house by two? Nowadays, with technology, all these “crazy” images possible.

Erik Johansson is a 23year old Swedish man. Nowadays he is studying computer engineering. However, he is a passionate about photography. Moreover, he shows a great talent manipulating images captured by his camera lens. Erik has made all the images above (and many more) possible with a camera and some photomontage.

The technique used by Erik Johansson to achieve these incredible and unbelievable images is image overlay. He makes you feel as if everything in the photograph is real, and maybe it is. A photograph made up by a real fish and a real island which he places together. Johansson’s’ images are never just one photograph. He uses several photos and fuses them into several layers.

His last creation took place in a square in Stockholm. He created a cliff in the middle of this square. Obviously, this cliff was just a result of great photo retouching and much imagination. Well, it doesn’t seem extremely difficult. Maybe one day you and I will be doing this kind of photography!

Here I leave you a link to Erik Johansson web site. Here you can observe all of his creations and be aware of every of his new creations!

Fashion in the net: Fashion blogs

2012-02-27T03:02:00.006-08:00

Are you in a style crisis? Are you interested in the latest trends but don’t know how to pull them off? Are you tired of reading magazines that don’t give you any clue? Don’t worry, there is an answer for you in the net: Fashion Blogs!

Fashion blogs are a window to international fashion and trends in a more realistic and everyday way. Because of this, they are starting to replace magazines and become more and more popular. Fashion bloggers are becoming an important piece in the fashion system, carrying the latest fashion shows, news and the newest designer pieces to million of followers all around the globe.

If you are new in visiting fashion blogs and you are interested in them, I can tell you some of my favourites (and everyone’s favourites). One of the most important fashion bloggers right now is Chiara Feragni. This Italian student is increasing her popularity thanks to the blog she started 2 years ago. Now, you can easily see her in the first row of the New York Fashion Week shows or lauching her own shoe-line! You will like her blog because of her combinations of low-cost clothes with designers pieces, her edgy and cool style , the amazing quality of the pictures and her EVERYDAY outfit posts!

And if you are a guy and think that this keeps you away from fashion blogs you are completely wrong! Boys like Adam Gallagher (from "I Am Galla") or Andreas Wijk are taking not so popular men’s trends and Fashion shows to a street style level. What you will like from them is the gorgeous looks, their mix of vintage pieces with the latest trends and their amazing photography!

Carnival

2012-02-21T08:29:00.003-08:00

What did you do during carnival? Did you go out with your friends? Or did you travel with your family away from your town? Are you bored of not doing anything during carnival? Here, I’m going to show you how people enjoyed their carnivals, so you will have an idea for next year!

The first option is going out with your friends. You get up early and are nervous Saturday morning, thinking about what you are going to do. Then, a friend calls you. He or she says that you are going to dress up in an incredible costume, and you are going to a party.

So this morning you don’t do any homework, you go out with your friends to prepare the costumes. Finally, you decide what you are going to be. Furthermore, you spend all afternoon getting ready for the party. When you leave your house, you realise that your costume is a zombie, or a pirate, or both: a zombie pirate. Because of that, you feel like it is in Halloween and you feel confused. But when you are at the party with your friends, you know that it is going to be the best Carnival ever!

Anther option is going out of town. For example, this Carnival, I went with my parents and some friends to ski. We went to the Pyrenees, where the closest ski resorts are. We had a very good time there. We dressed as cows, because it was the only costume that allowed us to ski. We skied every day, until the directors of the resort told us to leave, at five or six in the afternoon. During the rest of the day, we did homework or played and we all had dinner together. This is another way of enjoying Carnival. And I can guarantee that you will have a lot of fun!

Those are the options you have if you want to dress up during Carnival. On the other hand, if you don’t like costumes or Carnival’s parties, you can also enjoy this little holiday.

Some of my friends don’t like going out dressed up in strange ways, but they enjoy this long weekend, too. They meet in a house and pick a pizza and a film they all like. So they can enjoy a great afternoon all together. You can do the same. If you are alone, don’t worry, you can have fun watching a movie on the sofa, or reading a book.

So here you have, my favourite ways of enjoying a Carnival weekend. And remember, it does not matter if you are alone or not, if you like costumes or not, the important thing is that you have a great time.