Viva La Vida

12/30/2011

"Not Today"


“There is only one god, and his name is Death.
And there is only one thing we say to Death: Not today.”

(Syrio Forell)



S

ince I first heard about the new HBO series “Game of Thrones”, based on George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy novels "A Song of Ice and Fire", I felt curious about it; after all I had the feeling it was going to be awesome. And it certainly was. Once the 1st season concluded, all I wanted to do was reading the book, so I searched for it on the Internet right away. It didn’t take me more than three months to read the whole book, even with all the texts I had to read for my university classes. And I loved it. The way George R. R. Martin describes the kingdom of Westeros; the political, family and romantic relationships; and how he combines the peaceful times with the war, and all the simultaneous plots from the many characters’ points of view, is just admirable. Not to mention he takes the reader into the deeps of human nature, its fears, its romance, its joy and desires, woes and sorrows.

Right now, I’m about to finish the second book "A Clash of Kings" and I can’t wait for watching the 2nd season on TV and reading the next books.

Other books I love are The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The first ones are also a series from HBO, called “True Blood” . And the second one was, I believe, the first book I ever really, really enjoyed. Here you can find more about my love for Dorian.


My Hobby, Archery:

"Red Apple"
from Loading Artist







At first, I thought I wouldn’t be much difficult to talk about my hobby. But then I realized it might be a bit tricky: I’d had to pick one of the many things I enjoy doing, such as reading comics (and memes) on the Internet, cooking, practicing yoga, painting and drawing, taking long walks while listening to music, singing, writing, or reading a book.

And then it hit me, I don’t really have time to practice most of them; in fact, it’s been quite long since I last finished a whole book; because, lately, with all the things I have to do for the university, I don’t want to do anything else...
So, the hobby today I'm talking about is this entertaining activity I‘ve regularly been doing for the last five months: archery. Which I’d define as:
“the art of shooting several times with a bow and arrows to the same center of a distant target”.
And I say art, because is much more that just standing with the handle in one hand while holding the string with the other, and then releasing this string to shoot the arrow.

These days, archery is considered a sport, but it was originally developed for hunting about 5 hundred years ago, or more, and later the bow was used in battles.

Well, my passion for archery started last August when my Dad and I signed up for an archery course for beginners at the Chilean Archery Federation. It took us about 2 months to shoot without many mistakes. Now we practice every Sunday. We may not practice a lot, but I enjoy it because we share a hobby and we spend precious "quality-time" together.

Well, I look for sharing more about my hobby with you, soon. And hopefully you’ll see me practicing this sport.
Bye!

PS: That's so no me on that photo. Neither on the comic.

12/29/2011

If I could go somewhere else...


If I could choose to go somewhere, anywhere, I would take my time to decide. If it were possible, I'd like to visit every single continent and share with as many cultures as I could.

Although I’d love to travel across the whole extension of what once was the Roman Empire (form Antonine and Hadrian’s Wall to the Caspian Sea, from the Rhine and Danube to Egypt and North Africa) for historical reasons. I even remember wishing with all my hart going to Europe, especially to the romantic France and the gothic Germany. I love its architectural, musical and artistic tradition and evolution. In fact, I once wanted to study History of (Western) Arts; and I haven’t ruled out the possibility of studding Sociology of the Arts (including eastern arts).

But I must confess, since I can remember, I’ve been interested particularly on African tribes. It might be all the Discovery Channel’s programs I used to watch when I was a kid, and the anthropological part in me, telling me to take a leap of fate and go for adventures. No wonder why I’m studding Sociology, a close field of investigation to Social Anthropology. Still, this is one of the things I want to do before dying:

"To experience one of the most ancient cultures, to reconnect with our human roots."




12/16/2011

Not sure about what's gonna happen...




After about six months without classes because of "the Chile's Students Movement" everything
(especially my universitary life) is pretty uncertain...

Honestly, I’m expecting to get out of this as soon as possible, and try to learn as much as I can in the process. But I’m not sure how much I can learn in about three months… Anyway, I look forward to passing every single subject, which includes Social Psychology, Social History of Latin America, Philosophy of Social Sciences, Methodology of the Social Investigation, and Psychoanalysis in the Theater. This last one is an optional class I’m attending to, because I’m pretty interested about Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the moment; so I won’t have to worry about passing it.

But I just can’t imagine how classes will be during December and January with all the tests, the high temperatures, the rest of my friends on vacations, and stuff… I don’t think it’ll be the best time to study. Hopefully, I’ll finish soon with all the study, pass, and have fun on February. But I’m just not sure about how that's going to happen: March will be waiting for me, for the exams.