Crowdfunding

 Over the last few years crowdfunding has become an increasingly common way of raising money for entrepreneurs. This practice consist of asking for a very little money -often the same amount that a coffee costs!- to a large number of people who are willing to support you or your idea.

 This method although it could seem silly or tedious has helped many people reach their objectives and earn a lot of money. It is mainly used by artists ,who don't usually earn enough on other online platforms to pursue their career, by small brands whose aim is to grow bigger, or by people who have a great idea but need certain budget to take it into action.

Furthermore, crowdfunding is highly used for solidarity purposes. Many ordinary people use it to ask for money to afford a medical procedure. However, there is a negative aspect about this; some people take advantage of the willing to help of people and lie about having an illness to earn money. This happens very rarely but there are cases when the person has obtained thousands of euros by a lie.

To sum up, as far a I am concerned, crowdfunding is an excellent way to help and support many careers, small business and help people. Nevertheless, it is important to know a little about the person you fund to make sure their project is real and avoid a scam. 

Time to be honest

In today's world it is of paramount importance to be honest, not just at school but at any other field. Moreover, not acting fairly can cause the lost of respect from others, for instance teachers, friends or family, to us. When the damage is done it is very difficult to forgive or forget a lie, thus we ought to avoid dishonesty and always tell the truth. 

As third term is almost starting we have to be more honest now than ever, we are almost at the end of the road and we don't want to throw all the work we have done away. Therefore we must work hard and do our best in order to finish the year with the grades we deserve for all our effort.

Being dishonest is in the long run worse than being genuine and not reaching your objetives. Firstly because you could get caught and you would have to face the consequences. Besides, if you take the easy way the problems will be accumulating so you won't be able to solve them all. Also, the selectivity exam ,which is an exam where it is impossible to cheat, will be the turning point for us who are in second of bachillerato.

To put it in a nutshell, it is the time to be honest. It is a very fulfilling feeling to know you have worked hard on something and you've made it. We have to make sure that when we finish the school year we can look back and be proud of ourselves.

Wearables to help and save patients

The advancement of technology has led us to a new way of supervising our own health, it is "wearable technology", and over the last five years it has become increasingly common. Not only do sport professionals use it to track their health , but also ordinary people and people with many types of disabilities. Some of these light-weight machines are also quite affordable, for instance, you can find watches with many useful functions for prices of around 30 euros.

These watches have many options which allow you to keep an eye on your heart rate (that helps you detect any kind of irregularities), they also count your steps while walking and motivate you to be more active in order to prevent a sedentary lifestyle, and they track your sleep. Furthermore they analyze all the data and give you feedback every day about your activity and overall health.

Moreover, this tech has many more uses, these little clocks can be highly useful for people with Alzheimer, as they can set alarms with the certainty that they'll see them everyday ,as they'd be wearing it. Also other kinds of wearable devices like sensors which can help people who suffer a stroke recover more rapidly, or clothing which can detect changes in cellular temperature to detect tumors earlier.

To sum up, technology is taking a major role in health, it cannot only help us to recover from a disease but also prevent us from it.

Homesickness

 Homesickness is something very common that people always experience when they leave their home and stay in a different country. This feeling of sadness and longing for one's home can make it harder to get used to the new place and to adapt.

This emotion is triggered when you remember your home, friends, family or even food, and you have the urge to go back. It can be a very overwhelming feeling but you need to be down to earth and realize that you are living a new unique experience. Stepping out of your comfort zone is never easy but at the end it is very rewarding.

Although going back home is always an option, you can do several things to improve your situation in a foreign country, in order to make it your new home. You can meet new people, visit interesting cities, try new things and learn about their culture, and of course you can contact your family and friends whenever you miss them.

In conclusion, it is okay to feel homesick. When I've been abroad and it has rained a lot I've missed the Spanish weather but it didn't last long and, now I feel homesick for the other country!

Sleep

 According to doctors, it is necessary to sleep 8-9 hours in order to be well rested and to maximize your productivity the next day. However, people seldom follow this recommendation. In fact, nowadays people sleep less and less, so we can perceive an increase in the number of cases related to sleep disorders , which has also grown exponentially after the lastest lockdown.

This lack of sleep is greatly affected by some factors, such as the blue lights of our screens, which have been proven to reduce the production of melatonin, leading into difficulties to fall asleep. These lights wouldn't be a problem if we did't use our smartphones or tablets two hours before going to bed, but the reality is that it's become a habit to check them right before sleeping.

Another factor is our diet, not only caffeine affects our sleep, but also fizzy drinks and sugar. So if we consume large amounts of that we will have trouble switching off.

Furthermore. Last lockdown completely modified our sleep schedule; we used to go to bed at 10pm one day and the next one at 3am, depending whether we were hooked on a good Netflix show or not. Some of us have got used to the routine again, but some others are having difficulties trying to adapt themselves.

Also, the concern of getting infected is making harder to sleep for some people.

To conclude, it could be said that we should make an effort to sleep at least 8 hours, because it has many benefices for our health and it will improve our concentration. 

Challenges

 What is life if not challenges? In our daily life we usually have no choice but to face different challenges. They might be stressful and overwhelming but, if we look at the whole picture, we do realize that those challenges are key events that build our character and define who we are today.

Every single person has to overcome its own challenge. It could be a personal one, like deciding to step out of your comfort zone, an academic one, like pushing your own limits and getting better and better grades, or a challenge caused by this pandemic; due to circumstances given, many people have to survive through this hard time and to fight many problems like unemployment.

In my case, this year holds me one of the most decisive challenges I have ever experienced, selectivity. To successfully achieve my goals I must dedicate as much time and effort as I can. 

Sometimes you have the temptation to abandon the challenge, when that happens you must keep in mind your motivation, in my case getting to my dream career, an then take a second and focus again, and never give up.

To sum up, Challenges are hard, but if you do your best and do not lose your hope you will probably make it. 

Damned 2020 is finally coming to an end!!!

 I believe we can all agree 2020 has been a very strange year from its beginning to its ending. It has drastically changed the way we live and our own mindset. We had to learn to limit our contacts as much as possible in order to protect them from the virus. That is a really big effort, but maybe this year has made us realise some other things.

On the one hand, this year has made us appreciate some things we had taken for granted. Now, we know the importance of true friendships, we learnt who is going to be by our side regardless of the situation and to value small details like a hug. We have become closer to our family, and now we have more respect for elderly people and our grandparents, as we have missed them and worried about them constantly. Moreover we must also highlight how positive has been the lockdown to our environment, we have proved that we can really do significant changes by slowing down of lifestyle.

On the other hand, this year started with the wrong foot. First, there was a horrible wildfire in Australia which destroyed a large portion of the "Earth's lung" and many animal lives. Second, there were some important tensions between the two giants, the US and China, which could have led to a third world war, but that thankfully stoped just in time. Third, the death of Kobe Bryant.  And finally, this pandemic we are in, and the lockdown. This has definitely been by far the worst part of the year, many people have died ,the unemployment rate is too high and every single person has had a though time.

To sum up, I will say there is hope. The vaccines will improve the situation and by the end of this new year the pandemic might be over. 2021 seems like is going to be a better year.

American elections

Millions and millions of people have been following closely the last American elections, due to the great impact this country has in the rest of the world. Finally, last 7th November, Joe Biden was announced winner, as it had been predicted in the polls.

However, even though Joe Biden has become the president with more votes in history (81.283.485), Donald trump didn't get very far behind, as he was supported by 74.223.744 voters. This fact has made Donald Trump argue that the elections have been manipulated and he hasn't accepted his defeat yet. Many of his supporters had gone out to the streets claiming fakeness and fraud. Therefore, there has been a recount and the result did change, but in favour of Biden.

Joe Biden will be installed in the White House next 20th January, and I truly hope that by that time things will have got calmer and that problems will have stopped. I expect him to be a better president than Trump, because at least, he is willing to take action against Covid-19 by always taking into account the scientists' opinions, unlike Trump ,who advised the citizens to drink bleach.

All in all, we don't know anything yet. Biden will have to prove to be a better president by fixing the country and doing what he has promised. And it is time for Trump to give up. 

 

Influencers in our society

Being an Influencer is nowadays one of the most dreamed jobs among young people and teenagers. They are people who post regularly on their social media about their life and interests, and get paid for that. Also, they often are asked to collaborate with trademarks; they recommend the product to their followers and in exchange they might earn money or get the items for free. 

However, this arising job has been a trending topic since its origin and there are people who support them and others that still don't believe it is a valid profession.

On the one hand, an influencer gains its followers by being relatable, this means that a regular person sees itself reflected in them. It could be due to that they have a goal in common -like traveling-, they have a lifestyle they are trying to achieve ,or they teach abilities that are useful for their public -like gaming- all in all, they are very useful as a source of inspiration and to keep you motivated.

Also, many times influencers get in contact with their followers and act like their friends, which is helpful for many people who need support and find it in them.

Furthermore, a simple post on their platforms can bust the popularity of local or not-well-known brands, so they are a new form of marketing which in fact, is very effective.

On the other hand, there is nothing that guarantees you that the products they recommend are good, you can just trust them, but at the end of the day, they are strangers to you and the more products they sell the more money they get. So that could lead to dishonest reviews.

Moreover, as their name indicates, they "influence" people, not just to buy things but to act in certain way. Many young people look at them as role models and that could be dangerous if the influencers show on their social media bad habits such as smoking and excessive drinking.

From my point of view, it is a job as any other and it has its difficulties (as maintaining your social networks and being constantly thinking about your image) and its good aspects (as being famous and getting free things). So we ought to respect them ,but at the same time to avoid getting too attached and idolizing them.

Good handwriting may be the clue to success!!!

Technology is designed to make our lives as easy and comfortable as possible.Thus, we use it for the most basic things such as writing. It seems that we have left handwriting behind and that having a beautiful letter is not a useful skill anymore. But is that true though?

On the one hand, we are used to seeing university students carrying their laptops around and typing very fast pages and pages of notes. First of all, a clear advantage from typing is that it is the fastest method. Not only that but it is also more understandable and easy to read than handwriting.
Besides, some people might say that it gives the impression that you are more professional, implicated and even "updated" with technologies, and I agree with that, because, for instance, when you are submitting a CV, a project or any important document you type it, no matter how nice your handwriting is.

On the other hand, there are also many pros in having a good looking handwriting, especially at school, where sometimes laptops are not allowed and you must write down everything. In that case, handwriting is useful and should be practised, due to that it is important to write as fast as possible while keeping in mind that you have to reread it later, not an easy task! Also the way you write may influence your mark in an exam because the teacher always takes into consideration how the test is structured and if it is visually appealing, which are factors where your handwriting influences.

To sum up, I firmly believe that both methods can coexist together and that handwriting will never die. Even if school decides to allow the use of new technologies in their classes many people would still rather use paper and pen, and there's nothing wrong with that because typing doesn't have to be for everybody. 

NO CHEWING GUM, but shoe soles!!!

Chewing gum is a well loved snack for many people, it is said to reduce anxiety and to help to concentrate. So, if that is the case ,why do schools usually forbid them?


Well, a good reason is that most of those gums will end on the floor! It is very difficult to clean them from the floor because of their stickiness and that you need special equipment to do so, in fact the UK spends £50m every year to remove them. Moreover, who doesn't find annoying stepping on a gum? It surely means one afternoon cleaning your shoes. But what is worse is that they remain in the place for hundreds of years, that being bad for the environment and also for the cities, which are left with ugly streets not very welcoming for new tourists.


However, the UK, tired of this problem, has come with a new creative idea. They have placed special chewing gum bins to collect them and send them to Anna Bullus, an artist who creates all sorts of objects from them. She researched the gum chemical composition and realized that most of it was polymer, which is a versatile material, and thought that she could give it another use and recicle it.

This idea has been a success and has saved the UK over £6,000 in cleaning costs. Besides, you can buy the objects produced, like coffee cups and boots, and if you asked me they are pretty cool.



In conclusion, there are many reasons not to allow chewing gums at school and personally I am glad because I'm fed up with the situation. Moreover, I believe that the UK had a great idea , it is creative, eco-friendly and the items are cute, there's nothing else you can ask for.

Bubión on fire, but...

Every year, around summer season, many wildfires appear as the heading of the news. They are becoming more and more frequent as well as bigger. Moreover , this is a catastrophe for us, humans, but also for the animals, plants and overall the whole planet where we live.

On the one hand, many of these fires are caused by a human action. Either intentional ones or accidentals (due to the rubbish we have thrown there), they are still our fault. As far as I am concerned, we are not doing enough to prevent them ,so we ought to apply harsher measures. For instance, in those cases where the fire has been intentional, there should be no other solution, but a jail sentence. And in the other case, a great solution would be creating a fine for any kind of rubbish thrown, even if it is just a cola can.

On the other hand, sometimes they happen because of natural reasons. Lightnings sometimes reach the top of a tree and burn it down, unluckily that cannot be prevented, but we could pay more attention to the forest when a electric storm starts, as it is easier to stop a fire when it is little.

Also, a wildfire can begin because of what they call "rule of 30" (+30º temperature, -30% humidity ,wind of +30km/h and +30 days without raining),conditions which are given more often because of the global warming.

All in all,  wildfires should be at the spotlight during all summer. Quite recently we have seen fires in Bubión, a really big one in Huelva and yesterday one in Motril. Because of that we should invest more money in developing the existing technologies to detect fires before they occur.

Are school exam results always fair?

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has challenged our education system in so many ways. One of them relates to the exams. Our grades rely very heavily on them and with the impossibility of doing them the government has struggled trying to decide how to mark their students in a fair way.


On the one hand, there has been a huge downgrade in the UK. Their government has developed an algorithm which takes into account factors such as the number of students of each class and the pass result of other students to formulate their grade ,with the aid of their teachers' estimations.
This has caused many protests by the students, who believe that this system has been very unfair. Specially the students who live in poorer areas claim that they had suffered a much drastic downgrade than the people from private school.


On the other hand, Spain is the exact opposite case. Here we were based on our teachers' reports and we added one or even two points to our grades if we had done correctly all the assignments during quarantine. Also it was more difficult to fail a subject and we were given many opportunities to pass them by doing projects. This is also unfair but the students didn't seem as bothered with the issue and most of them accepted happily the upgrade.


In conclusion it could be said that we ought to learn from this experience and find another fairer way to evaluate, because we don't have a clue of how much this situation may last.

Jane Eyre Reader

FOMO, the syndrome striking people these days

 FOMO is the acronym of  "Fear Of Missing Out", which is indeed a reconoced type of social anxiety. Right, so, in other words; it is the feeling of having an unsatisfactory life, when you believe that you are having less fun than everyone else and you feel like you are wasting your life.

This fear is , in no small way, due to social media. In fact it could be argued that it could have been the origin of FOMO.
In those social networks you see  all your friends being successful, having fun, going to parties, travelling , buying new items.. and all of that while you are staying at home. That may affect you and make you develop FOMO. However, you must keep in mind that those are the highlighted moments of that person's life and that they are not always happy  and that ,as any other human, they have their flaws and bad times- as well as you do.
 Also, I believe that it is worth mentioning that it is estimated that teenagers have spent this 2020 an average of 3 hours a day in social media -greatly affected by the quarantine-. and that is a scary amount of time scrolling through the mobile; gossiping about others' life instead of living your own.

However, there are many things you can do about FOMO, starting by getting away from your mobile.
For instance, you ought to set goals, you can focus on things that will make you happy and help you arrive where you want to be.  Furthermore, you have to realize that you don't need a lot of friends to have the life you see on the internet, what matters is having close to you the people who matter. Specially now that we are living a pandemia and we must avoid large gatherings, you should value the quality of the friendship over the quantity.


All in all, not feeling fulfilled is a problem that many people face. It is much more complex than it seems and because of that we should strengthen our emotional intelligence to identify our feelings and be able manage them.

He told me he hadn't done it.

Anxiety is an emotion which I am sure we all have experienced more times than we would have liked to. Some of its common symptoms are sweaty palms, an increase of the heart rate and more blood flowing through the vessels, besides it is caused as a response of a real or imaginary threat.

This feeling has been a true savior during evolution. "Fight or flight" is a reaction that has kept us alive, surviving dangers of predators and other dangerous situations that could have resulted in death. Furthermore, anxiety has another positive aspect applicable in nowadays' lifestyle and it's that anxiety pushes us to improve and do our best. If we didn't have this natural response we wouldn't be able to study hours and hours to do a good exam or to keep awake finishing some project. Quoting a CEO "Anxiety and a brilliant brain is the key of success".

However, anxiety is not a motivation to do things for everybody , some people find this feeling overwhelming and it disables them to do the pending tasks. Also for some people even a small decision triggers anxiety. In these cases anxiety is considered an illness and should be assisted.

Furthermore, we might be anxious for a long period of time, for instance we might be anxious due to an exam for days or even weeks, and that is not healthy at all.

To put it in a nutshell, anxiety is a natural feeling that we should be able to handle. I believe that most of it comes from school/work related matters ,so if we learn when it is worthy to worry and when it is not we will drastically reduce our likelihood to feel anxious.

Time to bite the bullet!!

I'm sure we have all heard the expression "Netflix and Chill" and yes, although it is a great plan for a lazy day or a meet up with some friends it can also turn into a problem with ease if we spend more time than we should and we become addicted.

On the one hand, Netflix is a good option to reduce our stress after a long day, when we just want to relax, get over it and maybe have a laugh with our favorite show.
Moreover, apart of its entertainment purpose you can also use it as a fun way of learning a language. Thanks to its many language option and subtitles you can improve your listening or reading skills (even both at the same time). I do really recommend it to learn some idioms and to get used to the different accents of a language.

On the other hand, being addicted to Netflix can make you waste a lot of valuable time. This problem affects mainly teenagers and it triggers difficulties of concentration when they study or in some cases a complete lack of study. Furthermore, a lack of sleep in the long run is a risk for your health. 

To sum up, I believe that Netflix is a great tool ,but you must use it carefully and have self-control.
I personally do not have an account because I don't watch series very often, but I used to have one and I enjoyed it.

Bread for today, but... (QUARANTINE: DAY 58)

One of the greatest loss of this pandemic is the one affecting education. Every kid from Spain is in this moment assisting to online courses instead of face-to-face classes which ,of course, are not the same in any sense; not the same amount of hours are being dedicated to the subjects, the themes are not being explained in the same way.. every single thing is different.

But how does it affect this generation of students forced to do on-line courses?

On the one hand, this will cause with no doubt a lack of formation to the students, due to that this way of teaching is not as efficient as the classic one (at the moment), and that the fact of having to adapt to the changes has slower the learning process. 

Also it could create a gap between students who come from a wealthier and poorer families, specially in large families, where not every kid has his own device to attend to class correctly ,or maybe the device is not modern enough to access to some programs. This creates a difference between kids with a lot of facilities and other without them.

On the other hand, it is helping some students to set up routines of study, they are becoming more independent, organized and also they are realizing what study methods work the best for them. All those are essential skills for students, but apparently, most of the students are not used to do those stuffs.

Moreover, they are acquiring a much higher sense of responsibility and sensibility about their futures.

Furthermore, students and teachers are improving their technological skills, they use programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which are really important.

All in all, this extreme situation is producing extreme cases. Some students are benefiting from the situation meanwhile others are ending up adversely affected. Hopefully next year things will calm down and we will be prepare for any circumstance.

Is the CORONA VIRUS really the solution to CLIMATE CHANGE?(QUARANTINE: DAY 11)

COVID-19 is being devastating against us, especially for elderly people. It is killing many persons not just in Spain but in the whole world, the cypher of deaths is too high and we don´t even know the real world ´s cypher due that the misinformation of some governments and the inability to know the effect in underdeveloped countries. A measure that has been taken is the quarantine, which has reduced the number of infected people and it´s helping to slow down and decrease the curve of the pandemic.

This quarantine is key for the solution of this problem and we have to respect it and be solidary, and if we are given freedom to go outside we must be sensible and be aware of the risk that it is for us and for other people.

This quarantine is being as I said good for ourself, but also for our planet. While we are being quarantined the global pollution has decreased dramatically due that people are not using cars and staying at home. Not using the car has reduce a lot the amount of CO2 that is released to the atmosphere and has made the air quality in the cities much better, it has also cleared the sky of big cities providing photographs that show a shocking difference.  Also, the factories have slowed down their production because of the people staying at home and most flyings have been cancelled.
Many animals have returned to their habitats now that human action has stoped and we can even see them in urbane areas. Furthermore, water quality has improved.


This improvement on  our environment in just one month has made a big difference. And we are hoping some of these new habits will remain when COVID-19´s quarantine finishes. We must learn something from this tough experience and maybe some people will keep in mind this progress and use less their cars, recycle and do the shopping conscientiously.

To put it in a nut shell, the quarantine is helping us and our planet. We mustn´t be childish and respect it staying at home. Moreover we should use this time to think about the planet and how can we stop climate change.

Too skinny for the catwalk

Fashion industry is everywhere; social media, magazines, tv or on the streets. And it is represented by their models, that over the years have set the trends and have been the image of the perfect body. So this obviously has influenced people,  making them want to have those bodies and look like those models. But, is the fashion industry realistic?

On the one hand, the fashion industry has settle a canon of beauty where not everyone can fit in. Bodies very exercised and other factors that depend of the complexion and cannot be changed with exercise such as being tall, the color of your eyes, etc..
 For women it is even more specific than for men because it also talks about facial features such as having a small nose, full lips, feminine face,  and sometimes make girls think they need plastic surgery or botox.
Another thing is the amount of people that trying to fit put at risk their own health, by starving themselves in order to loose weight, doing extreme diets or diets they find on the internet that are not validated by any expert and could cause a deficit of some nutrients.
Also mental health is  affected, people are too hard with themselves and think they are not enough, also it can lead them to suffer from anorexia or body dysmorphia.
Models also struggle with this cannon, and very often they are told by their agencies to loose a little more of weigh for some jobs even when they are perfectly fine. This is dangerous thinking that the normal age for starting modeling is between 13 and 16 (18 is considered very late) and at those ages they are not aware of what they are asked and they don´t know how to say no.

On the other hand fashion industry is slowly changing. They are diversifying their models, introducing more plus sized models and more colored people to the industry. Last year the "Angels of Vectoria´s secret" catwalk was cancelled for this reason, it wasn´t "diverse" enough and the public complained a lot on social media and stopped watching it ,so at the end the company lost money and had to cancel the catwalk.
People are talking about those issues on social media and making changes, because they want to be represented too and see more types of body with which they can relate. For example, the movement of "body positivity"wants to demonstrate that plus sized models are equally beautiful.

To sum up, fashion industry should be more open and diversify their models so everybody feels included.