The Perfect Song

Hello: 

My perfect song. When I think about a specific song, my brain gets crazy. I can't choose a perfect song!, I love so many song, so it's a really hard, but I'll try.

To start, my first question is "Which band?" So, The Doors, The Strokes, Lenny Kravitz, Incubus, Héroes del Silencio, Enrique Bunbury, Soda Stereo, Pearl Jam, Metallica and a lot of bands came to me!. It was hard, but i thought "it must be an english song". So, today, I choose... Incubus. Yeah, one of my favorite bands, and maybe, the most special to me. And then comes another problem... which  song?! Oh! really hard question... But I decided to choose "Dig".

Dig is a song by Incubus, launched in 2007, being part of "Light Grenades", the sixth disc of the band. The beginning of the song is performed by Mike Einziguer, the guitarist. It makes an atmosphere incredible with his guitar and sounds effects. 

My favorite quote in the song is the next: 

"...So when weakness turns my ego up, I know you'll count on the me from yesterday, if I turn into another, dig me up from under what is covering the better part of me. Sing this song, remind me that we'll always have each other, when everything else's gone."

It's an amazing song. I loved to be singing it live on two times, 2010 and 2013. 

The meaning of the song makes me feel so... so deep. The weakness and sickness are things totally daily, but with some people you can trust, they are just chances. Chances to believe. To know you have a partner, or a girl/boy so special. 

It  is Dig, my perfect song. 

Peace. 

Good and bad things

First semester 2014: Good and bad things. 

First semester is ending and now it's time to think about it. In first place, i'm going to mention some good things about my semester. I want to start with my academical stuffs. I had good marks, and, until now, i'm beating all my courses. I think this year I strengthened my good friendships with some of my classmates, so I can say now: I have great friends in my university and my life. 

On the other hand, I'm a bit sad, because I noticed that my career doesn't make me happy, so I decided to stop. I'm going to freeze it after finishing my semester. Then, I'm starting to prepare myself to perform the PSU test. My "plan" is to enter next year to study journalism, here in Icei. It was a really hard decision, but I hope it works out. 

I hope my next semester is calm. I'll try to make my best to achieve my goals, and, why not?, trying to learn some new things, like a new language (I love italian, portuguese and french languages) and getting a job. So, please, wish me luck!. 

It was a great class, I had really good moments here. Thanks everybody! 

Peace. 

- Where do people learn about enviromentally friendly practices?

- Have you incorporated recycling into your habits? Describe
- Do you use a bike or your legs instead of a car?
- Have you joined or supported any eco-organisations? Why/Why not?
- What else have you done /would you like to do?

-I think people learn about enviromentally friendly practices in school, but I think it's more important to learn about it by your own family, since you were a child. 

-I try. We have permanent bags in my home, so when we need to buy on supermarket, we use these bags.

-Yeah!, I really love to walk or ride a bike, the feeling of freedom. But i can't come to university on bike or walking, because i live so far away from here. But i try to do it, usually. 

-No, i haven't. I don't know exactly why not, maybe it's about time problems, but i like the idea. 

-I would make more enviromentally friendly practices, but not just in my home, i can tell all my family to start to make it. Also, i can organize thrash on my neighborhood. 

Nationalization of Water

  This is a new about some events occurred in Santiago, specifically in "Parque Almagro" this week. Particularly, the social manifestations about the water's issue. What is that issue? In Chile exists a "Water Code", that sets the water as a private property. So, a lot of demonstrationists (7.000 people approx.) decided to protest against it. The protesters wants water is a public resource. A basic human right, endorsed by Constitution. This Code was created in the era of the Pinochet's dictatorship, and it gave the water to private companies. 

  Some leaders of the social movement, told to "The Santiago Times" that they are fighting since 1991. The fights have been against, for example, the privatization of Río Claro or a salmon project near of a city called Molina. 

  The article talks about some other "fights" of the citizens against privatization's projects. Also, in an interview, Christian Flores, president of the Valle de Pupío Defense Committee said he was not confident that President Michelle Bachellet (who said in her campaign that water would be declared as a "national property for public use") would really change this issue. Finishing, he said that civic pressure is a great weapon to fight against this problem.

  I think, a lot of Chilean's governments have exceeded on privatization's projects. There are a lot of things that can't be privates in its mostly, just like education or health. So, I totally agree with the protesters, and i really want a public water. Our natural resources can't be sold like simple things, it's the wealth of this country!. So, WE WANT PUBLIC WATER and Stop privatization's projects. 

 

The best book I have ever read.

The Catcher in the rye is a book written by J.D. Salinger, in 1951. It is my favorite book. I read it when i was 15, just a teenager but i really enjoyed. I have read it a lot of times, maybe 11 or 12, and always i can get a new thing of it. I don't know if the protagonist makes me feel represented, just some feelings and thoughts of him, but my imagination leaves me a lot of things to ramble. 

Holden is an adolescent boy, who knows how to get strange qualities of the people. He has some problems in school about marks and relationships with classmates. The story tells some events occurred in a Christmas, when Holden was 17. He hates a lot of behaviors that people have, but paradoxically, he shows these behaviors. So, we can say he is a tragic character, consumed by this paradox. 

An interesting thing of this book, is that Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's killer, was found reading this book. Also, he said he was imagining he was Holden killing Lennon. 

They were some things about my fav. book, The Catcher in the Rye. 

Peace. 

A picture to remember

Boys and Girls, 

Ok. I'm almost crying haha. One of the most exciting moments of my life. Brandon Boyd (Incubus' Frontman) is signing my guitar. Yeah, MY GUITAR. I have a picture with him too, but it's on my laptop, so i can't upload it now.

But... Well, it was on 17th December at 11.15 a.m. some hours before Incubus played heading the Santiago Summer Fest.
Me and my brother (the boy with the "half-head" in picture) decided to "try our luck", and went to the Ritz-Carlton's Hotel. We arrived at 11.00 a.m., with 10 people approx. at the place. We started to play some incubus songs and getting ready to wait a lot of hours to see, at least, a "nose" haha. But our luck wanted to give us a brilliant day, and Brandon Boyd was coming to us. Wow, it was unbelievable. He started to greet us one by one then we had a 20 mins approx. talk with him, and then he said "Bye guys, see you later!". That's my picture's story!

A band I like but nobody knows

Boys and Girls, 

I want to introduce to you "Contrapunto". It's a Chilean band and composed by Álvaro González, Sebastián González, Pedro Humeres y Álvaro Poblete. They are great musicians and my friends. Its style of music has a lot of mixes. They have sometimes latin jazz, rock, fusion and pop. 

The band played in a lot of places, for example on the Teleton's campaign. Also, they used to play some covers of great bands (Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joe Vasconcellos for example), and a lot of jazz patterns. 

The Gonzalez' brothers studied in my school, so i knew them a lot of years ago. They decided to start this band in 2008 but it ended in 2009, because them wanted to learn a lot of theory about jazz. 

They won "Festival de bandas juventud Providencia 2008" and "Peralillo festival de música". Also, Álvaro (my best friend), won twice "Solo para Bravos", a guitarist's festival organized by Escuela Moderna de Música. The incredible talent from this guy doesn't stop there. He has a certified in Projazz (school of music) without having a music. It's really amazing to think about it. 

So, i'm going to shut up myself, and to leave you a live video of "Renacer", the last song played by these guys. Enjoy! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBDqh8_ol_I

and the video of "Niño Modelo".

My favorite piece of technology. 

I think it's the Laptop. I really, really (REALLY!!) enjoy (and need to) to move when i make stuffs, like homework and reading books. So, the fact that you can do it with laptops, is so important to me. 

With my laptop, i can listening to music, reading books, watching videos and to enjoy with the "company" of my friends (Skype). And even more things! 

The most important thing to me, is about to have movements. Maybe i'm hyperactive. Maybe i'm not. But i need to move. So, the laptop brings me all the opportunities to move!. 

A negative aspect of it, is the fact that it has a battery. It would be, sometimes, your worst enemy. I really wish, someday, the batteries could be inexhaustible! 

Expectations for a new semester. 

  

  A new year brings a lot of chances to make things in our lives. That's one of my favorite reasons to believe (every year) that i can do important things in my life. This 2014, i hope and want to make a lot of things.

  To start my year, i hope to meet my new university's partners, and make some good friendships with them. I think one of the most important things in our study period is to share with people different to us. We can learn a lot of them. So, that's my first wish: To meet people. 

  In academic's stuffs, i want to learn. Learn about my courses, my teachers and the atmosphere we could create. 

  I hope to realize what i am living, to make some good decisions, and also, why not?, to make some "good mistakes". 

  i have some sports plans for this year. I want to be a more important player in the FaCso's football team. To grow my football skills to help my team and, if the force is with us, to win the championship. 

  My hobbies are mainly football and music. I play the guitar with my brother. He plays the drums too, so we can create some songs in ours fruitful times. 

  I hope this year i can improve my English, to be part of an exchange student plan in future. 

Boys and Girls: 

My name is Gustavo Soto de la Cuadra, and i am a sociology's student. 

I was born and grown in Santiago. I'm 20 years old . I studied in Liceo de Aplicación. 

My main hobbies are playing the guitar, reading books, writing poems or histories, listening to music, playing and watching football (even i like to read about it).

Music, love and football are the most interesting things in my life. 

I live in Puente Alto, and in my house are with me: Dad, Mom and my little brother. They are called Richard, María Cristina and Demian. 

Demian is my little brother, but he is my partner too. We had a band, with two more friends, and we used to play in some bars. The band was called "AguaRush", because we made some tribute to the Canadian band "Rush". So, the name is a game between a kind of water and the original name of the band. 

Oh!, i almost forgot. My family was composed by my "son" Romeo too. He was my dog (an english bulldog, really cute, ridiculous and funny) and life partner. He was dead in 2012, but we always remember him, because his existence was a light in our lives. Even we made a football team with my family (dad, brother, uncles and cousins) and the emblem of it is an English Bulldog's face. 

I hope we can have a really good time in class, to know each other and to share some experiences. 

Peace.