BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Thursday, June 2, 2011

(IN)Volution

The relentless pass of time brings several consequences, and most of them (if not all) mean changes.. For bad or worse: Wrinkles, illness, experience, among others.

Well, societies can suffer this same changes too.

In our beloved country, people have twisted their way of living around hostility: From environment, as we live in one of the most seismic and weather-oscillating corners of the Earth; from the government, with all of the disrespect towards our society and all the mistakes the people in charge commit day by day; And finally from themselves, being us the ones who self-destroy our nation and our society by stealing from us, killing each other out of nothing, keeping our heads down towards bad decisions, tearing the planet apart with acts from simply throwing a paper into the ground to sinking entire areas to take more money to buy a new Mercedes.
This is a problem of most societies around the world, though.

So. My parents always talk about how good was to live in the eightys: People were way more kind than now, more united (in spite of all the political circumstances, our neighborhood remained like a family). You could be returning from a party at 3 AM walking by the middle of a dark street, and nothing would happen.
There's a phrase I hear a lot when crossing by a place full of buildings with my mom and dad, and I'm sure all the guys of my age have heard it too: "Before you were born, this was all just wastelands". I personally hate great amounts of buildings. I'd prefer a huge wasteland, so me and my friends can go to play football until it gets dark, like my father did in the past.
Everything was simpler back in the 80's. My grandpa tells me that kids at that time were happy with wooden toys and foot balls. Nowadays, if a child doesn't have his Ipod for chirstmas, he punches his father in the face right away. And that's other thing about the eightys: People were respectful. Starting from the way kids treated their parents or adults in general. Today if a teacher stand against a problematic student, the kid goes and spit on him (or he doesn't gets beaten). My father's friends always talk about people being loyal even in such a non-loyalty moment as a fight: Just one against one. Now, if you have some problem with one guy, he goes an returns with his friends, and things get messy.

Let's stop talking about eightys and start with the ninetys.
I was born in '91 (glorious year for national sports), so I went through the transition of 90's- 2000.
It was all pretty awesome in the ninetys, because I lived my childhood in those years. There was all just playing and spending time with friends and family. The smell of wet earth at 6 in the afternoon reminds me of when I was 9, and I did nothing more than play ball with my friends while my mother watered the grass with my father embracing her kindly.
There were no worries by that time, so it was an epic period of my life. And that leads me to think everything was awesome back then, even people. Anyway, comparing society with the 80's, it was still kind, but not that much. The news started talking a little less of sports and a little more about robbery and murder, so the atmosphere was starting to get grey.

2000 was the decay: Wars, madness, censorship, illness, crisis..
The only good thing I can take is the music. The age of NĂ¼ Metal. Slipknot (my first CD of all time was "IOWA"), SOAD, POD, Mudvayne, Papa Roach, Drowning Pool, Korn, they all begun to sound at fall of the 90's and developed at 2000.
Society turned crazy at that period, I think. The "society of information" starts to show, and people begin to get more informed about things around them, specially about politics. And with that, came rejection and nonconformity, expressed through violence.
The first fashions captures our adolescent people, powered by hollow TV shows (they were bad at the moment, but now they're funny to remember).

Now it's right to say: "Every past time was better".

(TIIIIIREEEEED!)










(P.S. Miss, I'm sorry 'bout delivering after thursday. It was a busy day, u know?..)




(1).

Monday, May 30, 2011

Challenges.

(Damn! I'm so lazy right now that I don't know how to start. Besides, Histology got me hanging on the gallow, taking my time and my energy almost completely. I'll do my best though..)

Every discipline has its challenges. When it comes to a scientific topic, difficulties goes up even more due to the high speed of technological advance we've reached these days.

Veterinary medicine is not the exception. In time, diagnosis and treatment methods have evolved from using our bare senses to high performance and precision davices, allowing us to prevent or treat illnes faster and better. Nevertheless, all this improvement means money (and we come back once again to that issue) that in our case, gets really hard to gather.
Anyway, a wise person once said: "We have less resources, but that give us the advantage of doing anything, with practically sticks and stones, while others need their machinery to do the same", so it depends mostly on how good you are if you're going to pass the technology challenge or not.

Social implication of this branch of science is growing bigger each day. People generate strong bonds with their pets, so it's our duty to strengthen that bond by providing health and wellness to animals, and then animals can bring joy and happiness to their masters.
This challenge should mean a lot to every vet, because it's the most vocational side of the career. It's more about emotional retribution than anything else.

To effectively overcome educational challenges (I think this area is very connected with the social part mentioned above), us vets need to focus on people. Not everyone knows, for example, that dogs should not eat chicken bones, because of the risk of swallowing the slivers; Or that male cats do not turn "gay" after neutering (some people actually believe it's like this). So our job with people is to inform them well, and give them the necessary tools to develope a proper breeding of their animals.

So there! I've been told that no challenge is impossible.. others say that impossible is nothing.. well, "nothing" is an impossible thing to get, so "impossible" IS impossible xDDDDDDD

S**T, I'm tired! but I made it :D


see ya.






















(1).

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

$$$$$$$$

You know, I'll just say one thing: Money.

Money buys everything: Better or more teachers, infrastructure improovements, books, computers, microscopes, animals, trees, people, life, happiness, and the list goes on and on.

Even though the environment inside our faculty is really great, like a big family where everyone knows everyone, and the spreading areas include a very large terrain, with trees, grass and everything... we still have some problems:

First, teachers. A classmate talked recently about lack of balance between some departments in this matter: Some areas have a lot of professors, some areas just one or two. So that represents a big'o problem when, for example, we need to study in our Anatomy practices: Coordinator splits time in half for every group, which is not enough sometimes.

Now, infraestructure. The need of building up more places to study, a more comfortable and effective library, bigger indoor entertainment/rest facilities for rainy, cold days, a gym, etc, is urgent if you ask me.

Well.. the gym, the pool, the sportive/relaxing activities will not be fully used if we don't have time.. And there's another obstacle: Curriculum. Ours is getting tighter every year. Sometimes we can't attend to one class, because we are already taking another at the same time.

Let's talk about something I would enjoy a lot: Living inside the university.
It takes me too much time to get there (1,5 hours), and having a dorm room in the faculty would make everything easier: I could use those 3 hours to read or sleep, I wouldn't worry if it gets late when the party (or the reading, of course) turns wild ('cause my bed would be right there), the $400 I spend daily would buy me a snack in the class breaks, or some copies of any paper or whatever.

Anyway, the only way (or the easier) to make this possible would be to have a truck full of green pieces of paper with Benjamin Franklin's face painted over them.

















(1).

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Cold weather, Vodka and Heavy Metal!!!! \m/_




To travel around the world is a dream for a lot of people (if not everyone). For some of us it's just that, but for others it's a very close reality.
You need to study a lot, then work, make a lot of money, and there you have it! simple, huh? xDDD

Well, for me is just a dream by now. Specially because if there's a place where i'd love to go: quiet, a bit cold, with a black sky full of stars, where you could hear your thoughts, just laying on the ground looking for shooting stars to appear before going to sleep.. That would be the moon.

Now, with my feet on the earth, my perfect place would have to be COLD, definitely! With some variations on the weather, of course (It would be pretty boring to have just cloudy days all the time), but mostly a winter atmosphere. If it rains or snows, better yet. If we add thunders and lightnings to it, even more perfect!

One of the places that combine this assets is Northern Europe, specifically the Fennoscadian Region.

It's Finland, one of the countries with the best life quality on the planet: Stands among the most extense territories in Europe (6th), with 303.899 square meters.. and check this out: Total population is only 5.4 million! It means 16 habitants per square meter. 100% better than here.

A curious thing about Finland is the "midnight sun", which take place every year, when summer solstice is about to come. It's 24 hours of pure sunlight!

The landscapes are awesome, there's wood everywhere! Thousands of green forests to go through and get lost for a while, all covered by huge layers of snow. More than 180 thousand lakes and islands, endless grass fields, a lot of wildlife and plenty of cottages to stay in (and do whatever you please inside ;) ).

Seems like it's not much like a technological country, but wait! Even I ignored the fact that Nokia, the renowned mobile manufacturing company, is from Finland! That's a sign of advance.
To top it off, per capita income reaches the US$35.000, this based on an indrustrialized economy, high investment standards and maximum technological development.

However, what I like the most about Finland has nothing to do with geographic or economic conditions, but with music: Some of the greatest bands of modern Death and Power Metal were born in this cold country. Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Nightwish, Kalmah, Norther, among much others, have been crushing my head since I was 12. Most of this bands have inspired me to become a drummer and a music lover. I can't spend one day without listening to hard & fast drumms and distorted, slicing guitar sounds. That brings me the push I need to stand up everyday.

So this would be my perfect place to stay: By Torne river, with a bottle of Vodka, on a stormy day (or watching the "midnigth sun"), listening to this song:

Children of Bodom - Bodom Beach Terror




Wow! I almost forgot! This could be included in "my perfect day in Finland" too:











P.S : Sorry, Miss! I know it's late, but studies got me 'till now.

(1).

Friday, April 15, 2011

TransantiASSgo!

Everyday in Santiago, our beautiful and friendly city, millions of people use public transport to come and go through it. They use it to go to work, to their academical institutions or any other destination, and then return home safe.
In order to keep it that way, in 2007 came Transantiago, an effective transport system made to completely satisfy the people's need for comfort and short-timed travells.. or that's what the government thought.

Well, I'm one of that million people who use it.. and it TOTALLY SUCKS! But in case you haven't noticed why, I'll expose my reasons.

In comparison with the old transport system, it's even slower. The routes they chose and the lack of buses turn my way back home into a nightmare sometimes. I arrive home in 1 and a half hours exactly, the same time it takes me to get to my cottage in Maitencillo.

In what matters to machinery, there are some new buses, but also "pimped" ones: Old machines painted white and green, like the new ones. Obviously, on the inside, they remain broken and filthy. A worrying amount of accidents have occurred because of this.

Let's talk about drivers: they were supposed to have a special training in both driving and public relations skills. It seems it has failed.. I mean, there have to be at least one of them that does his job right, but most of them are still driving as fast as hell and arguing with any stressed dumbass that wants to get on the bus when there's no more room. Besides, they keep that old driver's tradition of skipping bus stops when there's students waiting.

The influx of people inside trains or buses is huge in "peak hours" (about 7 individuals per square meter). This overcrowding critically increases the risk of being robbed inside public transport, making the job easier to our dear friends with "sopaipilla" haircut: thieves (Flaytes).
Even though I'm familiar with the squeezing motion of great groups of people due to my aficion to Metal concerts, sometimes I just feel like kicking people's brains, so they can finally understand a simple thing: Allow people to get out first, so you can get in. They look like monkeys at moments, specially some old ladies: they get inside the train (Metro) as quick as their legs can carry them, with their faces twisted with anxiety, like saying "Give me a seat! give me a seat!", and once they're stablished, puff! All the strength and speed they shown a few seconds ago dissappears magically. It's funny, but it makes me sick!

Now, economics is the greatest fail of this system: The way of charging is quite smart because it's quicker than before and protects the drivers from being assaulted as they don't deal with money, but besides this, there's no other high point in this topic.
The ticket price increase almost every month. when the system just started, student fare was around $100. Now it's $180. Adult fare reached $300, but now it's almost double.
Prices up, salaries down.. in one word: A B U S E!

In my perception, the only way of improvement is to put end to this system, reinvent it, and then MAYBE.. JUST MAYBE, after years of research, reapply it.

So: engineering sucks, implementation sucks, price rating sucks.. Transantiago SUCKS!
















PD: This topic really pissed me off! I tried hard not to mention the F word, but this song use it.. a lot. It represents what I think in some way.

PARENTAL ADVISORY! EXPLICIT LYRICS.

Slipknot - Surfacing















(1).

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Guess how I get off my bed every morning..

Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Pets.. ?

Well... Hello :) I'd start writing about my pets, about how much I enjoy to spend time with them and all that stuff, but there's this little issue: I don't have any :S 

I know it's a weird situation for a vet student (and an animal lover, by consequence), but anyway.. that's life ;)

So, given this strange fact, i'll better talk about some pets that I had some years ago:

First, when I was 9 or 10, my uncle gave me a turtle. Her name was Manuela. She enjoyed making holes in the backyard and eating vegetables under the sparkling sun. She was as slow as I am, so that's one reason why I loved her so much. The problem was that she used to hide behind the doors of the storeroom at the end of the house.. so one day I couldn't find her. After a long day of searching, my mother finally saw her at that place, standing still.. forever.


After Manuela, at my 12's, a hamster joined the family :) It was a little, golden piece of fur named Bunny (we got that from the famous rabbit from looney tunes ;)). He could be running at his ball for hours, then just stop to eat some carrot and quickly get back to the exercise. At te beginning, my mother felt kinda awkward hanging around the house with a "mouse" inside, but in time she learned to apreciate him. As a matter of fact, she's the one who suffered the most when Bunny passed away 3 years later, and one of the main reasons of my current situation about pets.


So there! xD strange things can happen in this even stranger world, so don't be surprised.


see u in class, fellas!







(1).