Brain tricks and ears!

So after watching a couple of videos from AsapSCIENCE on YouTube, the same channel that made the video on lucid dreaming, I came across this video on mind tricks. I really found this interesting because it is not like a regular mind trick video were they just show you a bunch of videos and pictures, but it explains why these images or videos trick your mind. I have always liked these types of videos that leave you hanging and create a deeper train of thought, some leave you pondering life, so I would really recommend this channel if you also like those types of videos. What I like about it the most, is the interactive activities and examples that they use through the videos. It must also take a lot of time to make each of these videos since they are pretty long an they are stop motion so it shows all the effort put into each video. Finally I came across one last video on how old your ear is, it might sound really weird but it's really cool. It basically plays a bunch of radio frequency, some of them you might be able to hear and then others you might not. According to this video, my ear is somewhere in between 30 and 40 years old, how old is your ear?

-Laura Farias

Lucid Dreaming

The concept of dreaming is cool, but the concept of lucid dreaming is even cooler. For those who don't know a lucid dream is a dream where you are aware that you are dreaming. Unfortunately, you usually end up waking up once you realize you are dreaming, but if you don't you usually end up being able to control your dreams, which I find pretty cool. It is said that children are the ones who have the most lucid dreams, so you have most likely already had a lucid dream, even though you might not remember it. So as I was browsing through YouTube the other day I came across this video about how to lucid dream. I am actually going to try all of these things myself. There are also some really cool and scary facts about lucid dreaming, like did you know you can become temporarily paralyzed when you lucid dream? Yeah, I didn’t know either. So check this video out!

-Laura Farias

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Just WOW! I can't believe it! They finally made a realistic movie for the Turtles. I am a huge fan of the old movies. I spent most of my free time when I was a kid watching the same movies over and over again, and believe me I had a lot of free time. At the beginning those things scared me, they kind of looked like aliens. I mean, they looked like they made them from clay/plastic. Nevertheless I still love these movies and I can't wait to see how they made this movie compared to the other ones. The graphics have to be better, but what makes it even better is that the producer is Michael Bay from the sequel Transformers.  It would be interesting to see how this producer has changed the movie, and I can't wait to see the special effects added into it. Personally I can't wait, but there is some people that really don't want to see this, I'm interested to know what you think and what your personal feeling are towards this movie is so please leave a comment below.

-Juan Fernando

Moby - Bodyrock (The Official Video)

During a DI meeting when Off-Topic was on one of our famous rabbit trails we found this video. Ms. Vary explained to us that the singer originally had a different idea for the music video but after the auditions he couldn't help but make this one. I genuinely think that the people auditioning in the video were actually 'auditioning for the role' but it is also debatable that the video was 'faked'. Either way I think you will agree that this video is flat out funny. My favorite two dancers are the one that stares at you all creepily then dances like he is swimming and the one in the light blue shirt that, at one point, puts his hands on his head and acts like a bird. Which guy is your favorite? There is no in depth point to this blog, just watch, laugh and share it.

By Gio Aboujaoude

People are Awesome

I honestly haven't had any cool topics to choose from to actually make a post, but I had to ask myself, what do these people like to watch. I had no clue. So eventually I posted what I thought was cool, and what I never get bored of seeing. Behold, another people are awesome video. Some of you might feel like you have watched enough and you might not want to watch this video, and I get it, I easily get bored of videos myself. There is two reasons that I would recommend you to watch this video. 1: It's just awesome! 2: Imagine what this people have had to go through to make this video for you to watch. These people have had to put the only chance at life that they get to perform these stunts, and they do this for two reasons. 1: They get a huge rush and they love doing what they do. 2: They do it because more and more people demand more crazy videos and they just have provide. Hope you guys liked the video. Enjoy!

- Juan Fernando

Friends..

     Yes, I know I just posted. And yes, I know I was a little late with my last post...and this one. But it doesn't matter anymore because I am now posting! So when I asked my beautiful beautiful friends what I should post about because I honestly have nothing to talk about, they, of course, gave me horrible ideas. First, Gaby M. told me to write about Arjona's new album, which isn't that bad but Gaby, let's face it, I know nothing about him or his new album, so it would be kind of boring for me to write about. Then, Dania told me to write about her. I wouldn't even know what to say other than "Dania is a really cool girl whom I've known my entire life...and you should befriend her",  so I'm sorry I didn't go for that option on my last post Dania. Next was Loosle's turn to give me an idea. She as well, said that I should write about her. Gabbii or Gabii or Gabbi, however you spell your name (I do not know yet), I also apologize to you. Very creative idea but knowing how sarcastic you are, I didn't really consider it.

     This post is kind of contradicting itself though because I did just waste my time writing about these three girls and the ideas they gave me. So congratulations guys, I used your ideas, you're great friends, and you are so amazingly useful. To add a question to this post, I must ask, have you guys ever had that one moment with a friend where you ask them for something because you actually need help and all they give you is a useless answer because they don't think it's that important? 

P.S. - I'm sorry this post sucked so much, it won't happen again.

- Arige Mubarak

Life; Tacos & Pizza

         Alright so most of you probably already know who Gabriel Iglesias is, but for those of you who don't, he's a comedian who has enough skill to make any noise possible. Anyway, since I can't post Kevin Hart due to it being inappropriate, I decided to share this Gabriel Iglesias video. Here, he talks about living life and eating tacos and pizza. He mentions his view on "living life", explaining that he doesn't like to measure how great his life was by the number of years he lived, but for the moments that he lived for. I think it's a good idea to keep in mind because most of the time we think "Oh I shouldn't do this because it's not really that safe.", but after watching this video, I was reminded that the number of years you live isn't as important as actually enjoying your life and having fun.
          But please, if you do not mind curse words and some inappropriate things being said, check Kevin Hart's video out! Go to YouTube and type "My mom told me to tell you Kevin Hart". It is really funny and I guarantee you won't regret it. Back to Gabriel Iglesias though, what do you think? Do you agree with everything he said? Enjoy :)

- Arige Mubarak

Can Money Buy Happiness?

We have been told that money can’t buy happiness, but is this statement necessarily true? First of all, what is the definition of happiness for you? Is it spending some quality time with the people that you love? Is it traveling around the world? A cup of coffee in the morning? It all depends on what makes you happy. According to the video, money can actually buy happiness in a certain way.

For example, the video says that studies show that people who spend their money on others is positively correlated with happiness. For some people, happiness can also mean going out with your friends to the mall, buying your favorite CD, traveling or just buying your favorite pizza with extra cheese. For realize all those activities, we need money, so in certain way, money does by happiness. It’s true that sometimes when we buy something, we feel happy at the moment, but after a few days or even minutes we don’t feel that happy anymore; however, we have to admit that those moments of happiness felt great. Sometimes those little pleasures that we buy contribute to our happiness. In conclusion, yes, in a certain way, money can buy happiness, it just depends if the way you are spending your money makes you happy.

So, what do you think. Do you think money can buy happiness? Does material things affect your happiness state? What makes you happy? Let Me know in the comments ↓ :)

-Belen :)

You snooze, you lose!

Hey!  I found this video and I decided to share it with you guys because I thought it was interesting and relatable with all of us since most of us pass through this moment every morning. Basically, the video talks about if it's really a good idea or not to use the snooze button. According to the video, actually using the snooze button it's not healthy for our bodies. It actually make us feel even more tired when we finally decide to fully wake up. The video says that when the alarm sounds and wake us up, we still feel tired. That tired and awful state is called, Sleep Inertia. The deeper the sleep, more awful the Sleep Inertia will be. We feel tired because our body is not quite ready to wake up and there is when we press the snooze button. When we go back to sleep, our body restart the sleep cycle carrying us into deeper sleep stages and there is when the alarm rings again, making us feel even more tired. 

I was accostumed to use the snooze button, but I realized that everytime the alarm sounded, I felt quite stressed and more tired, so now I just set the alarm at the very last minute I know I have for sleeping. So, using the snooze button makes you more tired? Does it actually helps you prepare yoursef for finally waking up? Does your mom still wakes you up? Let me know in the comments!

-Belen :)

Battlefield 4

Well it's finally here, the sequel to the Battlefield series. This, of course, is the game that came after Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 3 came after Bad Company 2. Every time they release a new game in this sequel, they manage to make it better every time. I'm a huge Battlefield fan. I actually got Battlefield 3 as a birthday gift, and I'll be honest with you, it had been my favorite up until Battlefield 4 came out. I clocked in about 600 hours into Battlefield 3. That is a lot of time that I spent on that game, and it honestly never got boring. It didn't matter how many hours I had played before, every time I got into a game it felt like it was my first time playing it. Now Battlefield 4 has come out, and now this is the only game that I will be focusing on, I can't wait to play it. The video above is by a guy called Xhoho, he is somewhat of a Battlefield legend, he is known for getting insanely high kill streaks. The gameplay above is just awesome. I hope you guys enjoy. If you want to know more details about the game or are interested on playing it, notify me in the comments below. Thank you. Have a great day!

-Juan Fernando G.

RIO 2

I know some of you don't like cartoon movies anymore but a friend of mine told me to post about this movie. This movie talks how the endangered bird found out that they weren't the only ones that were left from their specie. This two birds had kids and now they are in the age that they want to go to an adventure. They went back to their homeland the Amazons. All the family went, the dad went to make happy the wife and the kids.When they went back to Brazil they found their specie. The wife found her father and her boyfriend (Bruno Mars). Since the wife found her old boyfriend the husband was really jealous. But remember the white bird that tried to imprison them to sell them later( the owner of the bird wanted to sell them). He didn't died as it seemed in the first movie. He's back and with help of a poisonous frog that is very enthusiastic to poison people and animals.  So the now the husband has three major problems: his father-in-law, the old boyfriend of his wife, and, the bird that this time doesn't wants to sell them this time he wants to kill them.

- JUAN PABLO ROMERO

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This movie talks about the war that has occurred between the humans and the apes during four years. The first movie talks about how apes are used for experiments with drugs. One of them was a chimpanzees that was pregnant but the scientists didn't noticed so one day that they were going to feed her but accidentally they opened the door and the medicine affected her brain. that same day she had her baby but when she escaper the baby stayed in the cage while the mom was trying to destroy the lab. The mom was shot because she was destroying the building and the baby was an orphan. But the scientist in-charge of the drug project took the baby to his house to raise him as his own son. Then his dad was too old that he was dying. So the scientist decided to give him a little of the drug that he injected in Caesar's mother.When Caesar saw the scientist injecting the drug he was 3 years old, but because of the drug that the DNA of the mother he had a kid brain when he was that age. So he drank the drug and his brain acquire rebelion that obligated the scince to puthim in a zoo but before he put Caesar in the zoo, Caesar grabbed a bottle full of the drug and he gave it to the gorilla to dink it. Then the Rise of the planet of the Apes started. And four years later is when this movie takes place.

- Juan Pablo Romero  

Animation, Aint it Great?

While surfing youtube I found this old video about Pokémon. It might possibly ruin your childhood but its still amazing! Their is no actual movie though, don't get your hopes up. After watching this I started to think about the advantages of animation in shows. Looking back on my past of cartoons now I can see a few clear differences. The point of the video below is not simply to ruin your childhood, although more than one person has told me they will never look at Pokémon the same way. It is to help explain how in an animated reality the ability to put emphasis on specific aspects of the show can help cloud the viewers judgment about the show, even when talking about kids. For example, after I watched the video I realized, if Pokémon existed they would be put to work in power plants or would have destroyed humanity years ago by the sheer ridiculousness of their power. I also wanted to point out that many animated shows take advantage of how their characters being more iconic and can therefore commit acts that we would consider too over the edge if anybody on a reality show did the same, like team rocket repeatedly trying to kill half the cast with giant machinery. If the show was not animated it would be more obvious even to children that using a gun would be far more effective, a characteristic that many animated shows share. There are other more highbrow advantages like the ability of an audience to associate with a cartoon face more than a real one....but I just really don't want to talk about that stuff because that's a more scientific approach. If you don't agree with me or don't care about what I just wrote then comment on the video, the graphics are pretty decent.

 

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

By Gio

Why do we get nervous?

Hey! I wanted to share this video with you guys because yesterday at Writer's Workshop class, we had to present any M2 that we have written (By the way, all their stories were really, really good guys). I have always been a shy person so I get really nervous when it's time to present in front of people. Everything was okay until Mr. Steven said that it was my turn to present. Suddenly, I felt like my hands and legs were shaking and my heart was pumping really hard. I thought that it was going to go away when I by the time I will sit in the chair, but instead, I got even more nervous. After my presentation I was wondering, why do we get nervous? Why does being in front of people or doing something that make us nervous makes our body react in that way? So, I decided to find a quickly answer for my question and I found this! Everything it's about chemical reactions in our body. The video says that if we imagine ourselves being focused, thinking positively and being confident, can help us overcome nervousness.

Belen

The truth is that I have tried this tactics before and they helped me. At least to keep myself standing hehe.

Divergent - March 21

You have probably all heard about Divergent enough, but for us who have read and love the books, or for those who are just excited to see the movie, the date is getting closer. The movie will premier in the U.S. in less than a week, on March 21. To this day, no release date has been set for Guatemala, but the poster is already up in the theaters so hopefully it will be soon. I have heard that it will probably be in the beginning of April. For those of us who have read the book, the character Uriah, will not be in this movie, the directors have said they will introduce him as a new character in Insurgent. It is not the best but at least he will be in the next movies. Recently the final movie trailer was released, some of the scenes were in the other trailer but most of them are new, so for those who haven't seen it yet, here it is.

-Laura Farias

John Green - Nerdfighters

You guys have all probably heard about John Green, the author of The Fault In Our Stars and some other books like Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska. What you may not know is that John Green runs a YouTube channel called vlogbrothers with his brother Hank Green. As you may or may not know his YouTube fans are called Nerdfighters. One thing that people are most surprised about is the fact that he is so crazy in his videos. His videos are about all sorts of things, from answering questions while drawing on your face to serious topics like the war in Ukraine. I personally enjoy his videos a lot since no matter what he is talking about he is very entertaining. Below is one of my personal favorite videos of his, also one of his very funny ones.

If you enjoyed the video you should go check out his channel. His brother Hank, also runs another channel called SciShow which explain some really cool things like how tape works. Have you guys watched John Green's videos before?

-Laura Farias

The Homeless Child Experiment

       So I've been watching FouseyTube for a while now, and I can tell you that his videos have changed since the beginning. At first, he started doing little skits that Arabs could relate to, but then he started making pranks and eventually that led to him making videos that would teach life lessons. By the title, you can expect that the video posted below is about something that will hopefully "make you see the world in a different way". What he did was, he basically got a kid, dressed him up as someone homeless, and told him to stay on the streets asking for money just to see what would happen. Being a little kid, you'd expect him to get at least ten dollars. Is that what happens though? I'm gonna spoil it. He did not get more than three dollars. I still encourage you to watch it though, just to get a feel of what the world has come to.

          I'm not gonna lie, this video is kind of eye opening. It makes you want to help as much as you can because I'm pretty sure each and everyone of you have thought "Someone else probably already gave him/her money", at least once in your life. Trust me, it's worse than you think, so why not just help whenever you can? It won't hurt anyone :) Please don't forget to tell me what you think about this video! I hope you enjoy it.

- Arige Mubarak

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

The movie is about a japanese monster from 1954. the movie is about a monster who has attacked cities like NYC, Japan, and London. One of the man noticed that the government wqasn't saying the truth. The goverment said  that it was a natural damage. The government accepted to hire the guy as a federal agent. The government was trying to figure out what was the thing that was attacking them so they send air forces to follow the heat tracks. When they found out the heat they fired all the missiles. The monster found the air forces and destroyed them. the soldiers used parachutes and landed in godzilla's tail. They found out that the monster was exposed to radioactive elements. so whenthey tried to send more air forces the monster was attacking another city. so this time the goverments sended tanks, soldiers, air forces, and navy. when the beast arrived every person who was resident of the city was send to an underground refuge. The whole world is trying to stop godzilla but what they don't know its going to take more than that to stop this beast. this is a graph of the size of godzilla through out the years.

-By: Juan Pablo Romero

Garden Warfare

Hopefully writing about a game will get more of you interested. I am not one for first person shooter games, however this new game is just too interesting. The new Plants Versus Zombies is on the XBOX ONE and XBOX 360. The video alone is exciting. The graphics seem pretty decent, the designs of the plants and zombies are detailed and the gameplay looks incredibly diverse. Although I have not tried the game myself, I feel confident saying that I would enjoy playing as either a zombie or a plant and in teams too. I have asked around about Plants Versus Zombies 2 and it seems it was a bit of a let down to most. I could only play the first version, which I enjoyed, and not the first because it 'required' that your device have a camera even though using it in the game was completely optional, the exact opposite of required if you ask me. I hope this brings back the franchise. If you agree please comment, if you don't please comment, either way please comment! To those who commented on my last post, thank you. Lastly, I leave you guys with something we all love, a video from youtube.

By Gio

Most Shocking Second a Day Video

I saw this video yesterday at home and I wanted to share it with you guys because I thought that it was a touching video and it make us see and appreciate all the good things that we have in our life. The video it's about the transition of a little happy normal girl that is living her life like probably all we did at that young age but unfortunately she didn't had the same luck like us thanks to the wars that are happening in her country, Syria. It made me feel really sad when I watched it because is not only that little girl that is going through that hard and painful moment, there are more of those innocent kids in the world that are not guilty of anything in that same situation as her of being in the middle of the wars. 

When I finished to watch the video, it made me think a lot about how lucky I am and about all the good things and moments that have happened in my life but sadly, sometime we do not appreciate them because we are busy thinking about all the the other little bad things that in comparison, are nothing with what this kids are passing through.

Belen

Transformers Age of Extinction

 For those who missed Transformers here is the video of the new movie there is going to be on 2015. I don't really know in which month, but I think it is going to appear on June or July. So a friend in my science class told me about this movie that it was going to appear of 2015. The trailer shows when transformers disappear from Earth without a mark. People thought they were gone but they forgot that they could transform themselves into transportation machines. Well after 50 years since transformers disappear. Matt Wahlberg bought every piece of junk that the tow truck brought to him. He bought the junk because he needed it to pay the college for his two sons. One day the tow truck brought him a truck but the guy didn't know that the truck was a transformer. After he figured out it was a transformer the federal agents came to take him but the father resisted. When the federal agents noticed that he resisted one of them got a gun and was going to fire to his daughter. After the transformer saved the Matt Waulberg daughter then another federal agent told the transformer that the people didn't needed him anymore. So then people from the army all around the world sended forces to destroy every transformer there was left on Earth. After that the hunt began for the extinction of the transformers.

Mazariegos Junior?

So Loosle showed me this entertaining video of some Russian kid directing a choir, and he immediately reminded me of the cello teacher, Mazariegos. It's just the way he moves and he's so into it. Anyway, we started talking about how it looked so natural to him and how much creativity this little kid must have had to just start doing something like this. Unfortunately, I don't think that the creativity we possess as kids stays with us as we grow up. When going through elementary and high school, we are taught to act a certain way. Many people call it discipline, but for me it's a failed attempt at disciplining once you restrict someone from their imagination and creativity. Once you tell someone how to start thinking, that's when you know you're doing it wrong. 

Do you guys feel the same way about creativity once it comes down to already being grown up? Do you think that we lose some of our creativity once school becomes a little more important? Or maybe we just don't find it necessary to do whatever comes to mind anymore. It could be either, I guess. Just let me know what you guys think!

- Arige Mubarak

Catch Your Moment

For all of you that are sports enthusiasts, extreme sports enthusiasts. This is kiteboarding. I have posted about this before, but I haven't posted a video of competition like this. This is a Red Bull sponsored competition that was held in Holland, I think. The whole purpose of the competition is to kiteboard as high, technical, and as dangerous as possible. Hope you guys like the video, please remember to leave a comment down below.



By: Juan Fernando

Movie Update(Something actually interesting to read about)

People Actually Watch This(I know Right)

I'm going to try to  keep this as succinct as possible. As far as I know there is talk about making a new Justice League franchise similar to that of the Avengers; if it does happen it will be based in the backdrop of the Man of Steel movie. For some bizarre reason the franchise hinges on a 'stand alone' Wonder Woman movie, probably a financial story there. The rumors that she will be played by Megan Fox are totally bogus, if this does happen she will be played by Gal Gadot(Beautiful girl in Fast & Furious 5)(Link). Although many people, not me, consider the 2004 Van Helsing a failure because it was meant to launch a 'horror franchise' it seems Tom Cruise is going to take a crack at it(Link). Regardless of your feelings for the 2004 movie I think we can all agree the 1.7m actor is going to destroy the franchise; I think the only worse news I have heard is Ben Affleck playing the new Batman in the new Batman vs. Superman movie(Link). Also worth mentioning, there is no proof that Justin Timberlake is the new Riddler. Whatever you read about these movies remember to read many separate articles because it is common to hear differing facts. I leave you with new 'interesting' 2014 movies you might not have heard of, Google them yourself!
-Need For Speed, Divergent(ugh), Cesar Chavez, Heaven is For Real, Transcendence, Godzilla, Hot to train Your Dragon 2, Hercules: Thracian Wars, Sin City 2, Dumb and Dumber 2, Night at the Museum 3, Horrible Bosses 2 and Hot Tub Time Machine 2-

By Gio