The best Career to follow

            It is very important to choose the perfect career to follow. In addition, it is essential to choose the career that you like and can have a good return of you effort. Following the career in chemistry is a good choice because you have good results very quickly. Chemistry is a field that studies about the composition, properties, reactions and forms of matter. It is so important and can change the world if it is used in a good way. It also has many opportunities to work.

            Since I was a child I have been thinking about my future and the correct choices because I want to be successful in my job . I always have had interested for science and I really want to be a Chemist. I can say that all of my effort has been compensated until now. Although this career has a good and quickly reward of your effort, it is necessary to study and dedicate yourself completely.

            My first choice was to study at another city. It was a difficult time because I was too young to assume many responsibilities. I was 14 years old when I decided to study a High school in a place that has opportunities to study chemistry.  I needed to wake up at 5:30 am to take a boat and then a bus to arrive at school. Many people told me that it was not necessary because the house where I lived is localized next to another school. Even though it was difficult, I knew that my effort was necessary to achieve what I wanted. When I finished the high school I started a course to become a Chemical Technician at the same school. Thenceforward I have studied so hard to follow this career. When I was studying I was sure that I did the right choice because good things were happening to me.

            My first reward was the internship that I got when I finished the course. I worked for one year at an excellent company that I always dreamed to work. Through my experience in this Industry I learned many things and developed my skills. I dedicated myself a lot to learn everything that I could.

            Times later, when my internship ended I was contracted to work in a Pharmaceutical Industry. I worked at a Laboratory as a chemical technician. I was so happy and I worked so hard there. In a short time I was recognized for to do a good job and I was promoted. However, I was worried because I was not studying. Furthermore, I wanted more for my career and I decided to study more to achieve a scholarship at the best University.

            Later, I had another reward. I received a confirmation of a scholarship at the University that I chose. Even though I was happy, I knew that it would not easy to conciliate but I needed to try. I was determinate to leave my job if it was necessary because the schedule that I worked precluded me to do both. However, my boss adjusted the schedule to me and I can say that it was another reward. I was pleased to working and studying together. Even all of my days were busy, I dedicated myself as much as I could.

            On the other hand, although I liked my job, sometimes I looked to the window and I thought that I needed to do something more. Therefore I decided to study chemistry at US in a program called Science without borders. I think that I did the right choice and since I have lived in the United States I have sure that I will do the difference in my career. I have studied so hard and I am learning a new language and it is a good complement.

            In conclusion, every effort that I did I was rewarded quickly. I can say that I chose the best career to follow because it is something that I like to do and I have many opportunities to work and study. It is very motivating because I can see the result in a shorter period of time.  As a result, it makes me go ahead even though I have difficulties.

Water Consumption

The future of our next generations is becoming worrying. Some actual resources are in danger of scarcity, such as the most important for our life, the water. The world's water consumption is growing every day, as result of the growth  of the world population and human activity. Raising the question: is the currently water available enough for the world's needs?

            According to the website of the United Nations, Brazil is responsible for the biggest concentration of water appropriated for the human consumption. Its territory concentrates about twelve percent of all fresh water of the world. But its huge reserves are irregularly distributed, and do not coincide geographically with the big cities which concentrates most of the Brazilian population. This fact together with the forms of use and mismanagement of water, causing severe consequences on the quality and loss of resource. In the same way, the worldwide  water consumption is growing over the time, and the United States is the country that consume more water in the whole world. Its main aquifer, Ogallala, is suffering a big reduction of its volume. Those numbers are similar in the other countries, and are related with the accelerated growth of agriculture, industries, and urbanization to supply the needs of the world's population. Another big problem is the waste of water in all houses over the world. In many homes it is possible to find inappropriate uses of water, such as leaks in pipelines, toilets with large reservation of water, and use without concern by the population. These facts are generating more consumption, and deterioration of water resources that are still available, a resource that might not exist in future generations.

            To beginning to solve this problem, is required to take some preventive and structural actions are required to minimize losses of water in the world. Some actions need to be applied in the distribution of water to households, supervision of use, and occupation of the available water reserves, in order to prevent degradation of water sources. In addition, educational campaigns about proper use of this important natural resource to reach the population and make them aware about this problem. Also, nations and large organizations need to be in charge of those actions because they have the power of the administration, but the population need to do their part too.

            Because of the growth of the world's water consumption has a big danger of there will not be enough water for the future generation, so in my opinion population and authorities need to join forces to avoid that it happens. Doing it all members will save the world's water preventing the future of the life on Earth. Being a advantage to all, making each one person responsible for the warranty of this resource to the life of our next generations, and also to the present generation.

Igor Lins

Good Experience - Blog 2

Best Vacation Ever

Last December my friends and I decided to travel to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It was the first vacation in another country and also the first vacation that I was able to spend a good quantity of money. The first thinking it was expend 30 days traveling around this cities trying to go in every place and do everything to enjoy every single second of the trip. Just the thought of taken a vacation was already amazing and the chance to visit and do tours in these cities was even more exiting. The adventures and surprises that we were waiting for regard this travel experience was inexplicable and the feeling was of the best.

One week before we left New Orleans we all decided and bought big backpacks. My backpack was the biggest and for consequence the heavier. The flight to San Francisco had two stops, Houston, Austin and then San Francisco. All the flights occurred better than I expected because the flight from Houston to Austin I did not choose to sit in one place. When I arrived in the plane’s door the company told me that they was run out of places in the economic class, and then they put me in the first class. It was the best flight ever.

One thing that I forgot to say is that I was alone in the first flight, so I arrived in San Francisco airport alone, but it was nothing to worry about. Until that moment nothing was too unusual, it was a big airport, had planes, many people too, so I just found my friends and we took the metro to downtown. We arrived at the station walked a little bit and climbed the stairs. This moment, this was the exact moment I knew that I was in the US. That part of the city is just wonderful, exactly the same in the movies. I do not know if it was the architecture stile or the feeling of being in San Francisco that made me excited.

We stayed at San Francisco International Hostel, simple place but very good. It was four people to a room, laundry, free coffee and pancakes in the breakfast and the best thing, free beer down stairs. They had every night free beer for the guests in the basement, and even better a space to dance, a private room with a table, another space to play poker and a professional and wonderful table for beer pong. We had really good moments there and I met people from all the world, France, Spain, England, Japan, Germany, Mexico, etc. It was excellent exercise to improve my English, and to share a secret, my English is almost perfect when I am drunk.

  I did not spend my whole time in San Francisco in the hostel. The first place that we went was the Golden Gate Bridge, it was no easy to get there. I rented bikes and we rode to the bridge. We passed by some famous architecture houses and through a big park. It was almost a perfect ride but my friend’s bike broke and we stayed waiting for the replace of the bike for two hours. In this waiting time the weather changed, it became cold and if one is riding a bike when the weather is cold the felling becomes colder. Despite this fact, the ride was wonderful and to ride a bike on the bridge is an inexplicable felling. Everything was worth this ride, even the cold weather. In the other days we visited the Pier 39, National Park Muir woods, and the night life in San Francisco.

The grade for San Francisco is A plus. Everyone in the world needs to visit this city, there I felt a great pleasure to walk and talk with everybody. Beautiful city, wonderful places, and free beer down stairs. Now the other part of the trip, well I think I will keep it for the next blog. 

Teaching Methods of English

Learning is the capacity a person needs every day to respond in an appropriate way to different requests and challenges. According to Richard Mayer, a professor of Psychology at the University of California, information is processed through two channels, the verbal and the visual. In the learning process, the teacher lead his explanation through words and pictures, students learn more successfully. If we focus on the teacher-student verbalization system, using only words, students will have greater difficulty remembering what a professor said shortly after the information has been transmitted. TV Series with subtitles have become an effective method of learning where one can even learn two subjects at the same time. Other Teaching Methods prove to be effective with learning the English Language as well.

TV Series show different situations of different contexts. For instance, a person can watch a show about friends or vampires. People can choose what genre they prefer like comedy or science fiction. This way, they are doing what they like. When a person are learning another language, one can use the subtitles that will improve your learning. While one listening to the person talk, they can see the word that the person said. Therefore, their mind will associate the sound to word. This way, using the two channels will process the information. In addition, they can annotate unknown words to look after the translation.

For instance, Breaking Bad is a TV Series that involves Chemistry. It is very interesting because it has many scenes explaining concepts about Chemistry. This catches the viewer’s attention in the series, especially if the viewer likes science. The history of series is engaging. The scenes has events that happen in real life like devaluing a great profession such as a professor, and gaining much profit from illegal things like drug trafficking. In addition, Breaking Bad also happens in family context so it has an English not so hard to understand.

 On the another hand, some people can claim that watching series is not a good way to learn another language because they do not learn the grammar of language. They can say that the viewers just learn many slangs words of context of the series. The learning process can be used in many ways to learn. Immersing in a new culture, learning a new language is important to know in everyday dialect and slang words to better communicate with the people daily.

Traditional methods of learning do not hold the attention of students. In the process of learning using only books no longer works. Actually, most of students do not like to read books. Reading is a good way of learning but is boring. There are days that one do not pay attention to what they are doing. Therefore, in learning process they need of many things that catch their attention. When watching a series, they involve theirself with the history and want to watch more.

TV series are an effective method of learning but should not be the only technique used to learn. The learning process is long and diverse. Many ways of study can be chosen. Increasingly the teaching methods are adapting to the age that we live in. Therefore, we need to look at what methods catch more attention. The traditional method is needed to improve the writing. However, to watch a TV series is an innovative and cool way to learn English.  

Taynara Matos

Solving problems in Virtual Role Playing Games

Solving problems in Virtual Role Playing Games

Virtual Role Playing Games have become popular since the launch of Ultima Online and Tibia. Both games started in 1997. The life inside a Virtual Role Playing Games is good training to enhance your abilities to solve problems that are not usually faced in daily life. Each day, millions of players play World of Warcraft, one of the most famous Virtual Role Playing Games. People inside the game can choose the character which best matches their personality or preference.

Teenagers enjoy playing these games because there are some difficulties in real life that can be overcome easily in virtual games. According to the American Medical Association, “up to ninety percent of American youth play video games”, "Video Games: Are They Really a Source of Addiction?" Psychcentral. Kristi A. Dename, n.d. Web. 12 March. 2009. Of those teens and young adults, it is speculated that up to fifteen percent may be addicted. Players sometimes think that their status in virtual life is more important than in real life. This happens because some people try to replace real life socialization with virtual life socialization.

            There are many challenges in Role Playing Games. For example, in the online game Tibia, you face many types of creatures like minotaurs, demons, dragons, witches, orcs and many other enemies. There are many missions that grant access to new areas inside the game and rare items that can only be obtained by solving these missions. By solving these missions players can obtain a good reputation in the game. That means your socialization inside the game increases.

Tibia is an easy and nice game that anyone can play and have fun moments as you do in real life. You can learn many interesting things just by talking with NPCs (Non-Playable Characters who are controlled virtually by the game system and assist you all the time). When you play Tibia, you can talk with one of these NPCs and try to say key words in the personal chats with him or her. At this point, you can learn essential information that helps you to train your abilities and increase your knowledge about any specific problem during your adventure.

Ultima Online is a game very similar to Tibia, because Tibia was based on the Ultima Online model. You must get currency to buy items and improve you character. In both games, Tibia and Ultima Online, you increase your skills in order to improve the character’s abilities and face stronger and more difficult challenges.

 Key words can enable more information and this is very important in Role Playing Games because you need to search for information in order to solve challenges and problems. As in real life people try to persuade others in order to discover secrets or get something. You can also ask an older player about information that you need to know.

In conclusion, Virtual Online Role Playing Games can be a very interesting and smart game style. People can have many good moments and fun when playing this genre of game. They can feel gratification just by experiencing the life inside the game world structure with their family and friends. Skills learned in RPG can be transferred to the real world. However it is good to remember that a virtual life can never replace real life.  

                                                                                                            Bruno Kamino Yamamoto

            

The Future

The Future

Whoever plans to go to the university need to choose their future major. Usually, when people are in High School, they need to choose it. Some people have known since when they were children what they want to be. Other need wait for a long time and other never find it. For this reason,  a lot of people give up in their majors. Usually, a lot of areas have many people who drop out. Computer Science is one of these areas. Computer Science was recently made a major and almost everyone did not know what people really learn in it. Almost everyone thinks that people who work with Computer Science know how to fix or create computers. However it’s not true. Yes, in Computer Science the students learn about hardware, but almost everything that they know about how fix computer is because they conducted research in other sources or extra courses.

Usually, people who make Computer Science their major can work making programs or new research. There are a lot of fields that they can work, many people do not like programs, then they can work in other fields like project of software, databases, and optimization software. In this major, they are able to do almost everything about softwares, but not on hardwares. People usually do not know the difference between software and hardware. To explain, I will use an expression of my professor who said, “Software is what you insult and hardware is what you kick”. It is completely true, softwares are programs on your computer and hardware is the physical computer. It is very important that people understand that. A computer scientist usually work on softwares and rarely on hardwares.

If you want to be a computer scientist you will need to graduate in Computer Science, usually the courses are very difficult, the percentage of dropouts is very high. According with the community Br-Linux the percentage can be more than 90% in some universities. It prove that not everyone knows what they will learn in this course and this is difficult. However, it is important to say that the field of Computer Science is in expansion and has a lot of work to do. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the first and the second best jobs of the world are in the Computer Science field and the best company to work at is Google. They receive a good wage and do a good job. Also, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the people who graduate in Computer Science have lower level of stress.

Having a major in Computer Science is not easy, you will need to study a lot and it can take some years of your life, but one thing that you can be sure of is, if you make a grade in the class, you will have a good job. If everything in our life was easy, life will not be fun. So, choose your objectives, make your way, be assertive in your choice, never go back and finish your own objectives. It does not matter if it is Computer Science or Medicine, you will need to focus on your own future, choose what you want to do and do it very well.  

Gustavo Goncalves,

March 13, 2014

My Favorite Hobby

Fabio Vinicius Dumaszak March 13, 2014

Prof: Hannah Griggs

Reading and writing

Dillard University

My Favorite Hobby

One of the most interesting and different thing in my life is that I grew up in a farm. I have developed different likes and one of them is my passion for horses and related things. This is one of the reasons I am interested in equestrian sports such as team roping. Team Roping is an equestrian sport involving two riders on their horses and a calf. The first rider is the header, he has to rope the front of the calf by its horns or neck. After that the second rider, called the heeler, ropes the calf by its hind feet. The two riders try to do it as fast as they can. I am really impressed with how  professionals do it in such a short time, it is a matter of 4-6 seconds, It is extremely fast. The pair which has the shorter time is the winner.

My first contact with this practice was when I was younger and I went to a championship for amateur categories. My brother was in it and he won a prize. I always liked it but I have never tried before. My city is quite small, about five thousand inhabitants, and we have a small club of about 10 people who practice this activity. Once we hired a professional to give us a small course in our city. It was when I learned how to rope well and got more fond of this sport. The course extended for a whole weekend, on monday, my shoulder was hurt for do the same movement for a long time spinning a rope. But it was worthy, I got much better and our group became stronger.

My brother and I became so fond of team roping that we decided to build our own arena. We faced some difficulties doing it, the most difficult one was convincing our father to give us a piece of land for it. We would occupy an amount of land used for agriculture, which is our means of livelihood.  However, we needed a small area to build it and it will not make impact in his income. Our second problem was raising money to buy the necessary materials such as wires, wood, and hiring somebody to help us make the boxes and gates. Some people in our city supported our goal and helped by giving us some materials, money or even helping to do the work. My father did not like our idea at the first moment. When he realized how focused we were and how people were interacting with us, he changed his mind and started to help us. One month later, our work was done, the arena was ready.

We finally could debut our own arena and start training at home.Our friends from the roping club came to see and train too. On the first days people from the city came every weekend to watch and drink some beer. However, we were so bad and we had no ability. We just kept trying and missing almost all the ropes we had thrown. The only thing we were doing was raising a huge cloud of dirt running on our horses. Our audience became bored of seeing our bad performance and to smelling lots of dirt; in three weeks, we had no more audience. Making shows was not our objective, we just liked to do it and we were trying to get better. We kept training during the whole winter break, which is one month, and at the end, we realized that we had not gotten any better. We were not disappointed because we do it just for fun and interaction with our friends. The most important was that we had a good time.

I developed this hobby as a good leisure activity, it is a mix of adrenaline, concentration, focus, and much training. On the other hand, it also has bad features. It is an expensive activity. You have to spend money with the arena, horses are quite expensive to buy and sustain. You have to afford equipments such as ropes and horse saddle. Another bad feature is that it is dangerous and you can get seriously hurt. It is difficult to get adrenaline in any sport without danger. I have fallen off my horse sometimes and gotten kicked. Fortunately, I have never suffered great injuries but I know some people who got a broken bone or lost a finger. It happens because the rope can tie your finger and the calf pulls it with great strength which can chop your finger off. You must be careful and attentive to these things. Otherwise, bad experiences can happen.

I am in the United States now, living in a big city. For about six months, I have not had a team roping day or even ridden a horse. My hobbies have changed and I have gotten used to living in big cities. I am still missing some basic things from my home. It looks very simple and maybe pathetic, but I miss the sight of different landscapes, the nature, breathing fresh air, and at night, seeing the starry sky. These things are quite simple but they have great impact on me and make me feel better.

Abortion in Brazil

Even today, the abortion in Brazil is illegal, except in cases of rape, when the mother’s life is in danger or in the case of anencephaly, a fetal anomaly in which the fetus lacks part of the brain, leaving the child with virtually no chance of survival. However if a woman is pregnant and she does not want the baby, she will proceed with the abortion whether it is illegal or not. Brazil’s Ministry of Health estimates that about 1 million abortions are performed in the country annually, about 200,000 women are hospitalized every year due to complications from illegal abortions and about 78,000 women die from unsafe abortion. Making abortion legal will not change the number of abortion, however it will decrease the number of complications and deaths. Although some people do not agree with the right to have an abortion, this decision should be made by the woman.

March 11, 2014           

The Challenge of Learning English

            Growing up, I preferred French instead of English language. When I was a child, my dream was to speak French and to live in Paris. But like John Green said, "The world is not a wish-granting factory." Since August 2013, I have been learning English in the United States. I came to New Orleans, Louisiana, to participate in an exchange program, so I must learn English as soon as possible. I arrived here without speaking English, so imagine how it seems a little nerve-racking to me. New country, new culture, new people, new language. Challenge accepted. Let's get started.

            On the first week in my new university, we had a meeting with our future professors. They introduced themselves and explained about the English Program. Thankfully there was an interpreter on this day. Only because of this I am now able to explain what they were talking about. On August 26, my English classes started. I was a little worried, but still positive. I was enrolled in four classes: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, Drama for Pronunciation, and Cultural Enrichment.

            During the first classes I had difficulties understanding what the teachers said. I could understand the main idea of the classes, but I missed a lot of words. American people speak so fast, and they also do not pronounce the entire word. In Portuguese we pronounce every letter of the word. I thought to myself: "What is the purpose of the letter in a word, if we do not pronounce it?"

            In classes I could not speak Portuguese with my classmates. This was a good rule because we needed to practice our English, but sometimes it was hard to follow. Once in Speaking class we were debating about ET, and the discussion ended in Portuguese because the groups could not agree with each other. To help me learn English faster, at home I watched movies and series with subtitles in English, and I also started to read books in English. In the beginning it was hard, but in the course of time, I did not need to translate a lot of words to understand what I was reading about.

            About two months later, my English was improving. I could better understand and formulate sentences that were not just "I am fine and you" or "I am sorry, I do not speak English very well" as it was before. Almost every day I had homework to do, essays to write, and tongue twisters to memorize. At the end of the semester, I had exhaustive final tests and a presentation to present. I have to say that I definitely was not born to be an actress. On every rehearsal, I thought: "OMG! I need get out of here. I do not want to be an actress". But I needed to do this because my grades depended it. I knew that it was good for improvement the of my English, so with a lot of effort and shame, I did it. Thereby, four months later, my first period of English classes was finished.

            In this current semester I am continuing studying English. Now my English is much better than when I arrived here. I still have problems in Speaking and Writing mainly, but I am working on this, and I believe that with more effort and study I will soon reach my goal. Unlike before, I like the English language very much. English is no longer a terrible monster that frightens me. Nowadays, it sounds like a beautiful and simple language to me.

 Marília Silva