Summer Holidays

Summer Holidays are something necessary, we all need some time to relax and connect with ourselves.

In this Summer Holidays I pretend to go to El Bolsón, it's located in the Patagonia Argentina. I've seen some images from internet and i can't wait to go there, it looks just amazing!

I'm going with my family (like all years), my mom, my brother and my stepfather. Actually, we are making the route with my stepfahter, so we don't know exactly what places the we are going to visit yet, but we're trying to make the more faster and economic route, because you know, In holidays, the money go away, just like that hahahaha.

Some of the places we pretend to go as we travel to El Bolsón are: Buenos Aires and Villa Angosturas. In B.A we are thinking to go just for the day, so can buy some chocolates and some books, I have been in Buenos Aires before, and I have to admit that the chocolates are great, but they are expensive, not as the books, the are very cheap, so it's going to be a great chance to renovate the bookshelf.

One of my favorite things to do in holidays is kayak, so i pretend to rent a kayak when i get there, I'm thinking to use it in the Nahuelhuapi Lake, because is one of the most beautiful lakes that i've ever seen, so i'm thinking it would be a nice crossing.

Also i'm pretending to work on vacations, to save so money because me and my school's friends are planning to go to the north of Chile, we don't know where, but i know it's going to be cool  wherever we go!

Addiction: From Tea and Coffee to Drugs of Abuse

Drugs are something very powerful, and if we aren't careful with these, they could become a problem more than a solution, i mean, medication drugs, drugs of abuse,etc.

I'm not very attached with these last kind of drugs, but a few years ago i decided to try one of them, just because i wanted to have my own experience with it, and by consequence, have my own opinion about it.

I tried Marijuana, i remember that i was scared the first time, because you know, i just heard about it, but that was going to be my first time, i thought, but i was psicologically prepared in that moment, I felt mature, so i moved on and tried it (I have to say that i was avoiding to think about what I was doing, i just wanted to know how it was going to feel and nothing more).

I started to smoke, but i felt nothing, it was like smoking a normal cigarette with a strange flavor, but nothing special. After 20 minutes app.  i started to feel lazy, with a very relaxing sensation on my body. My eyes started to feel tired, like if they don't wanna watch anymore. It was a great sensation, so i don't remember any bad experience of that moment.

Honestly I don't know much about their benefits, but i kow that marijuana it's used in medicine, because it's a great analgesic, it's used to treat glaucoma, and also helps to decrease anxiety.

Drug addiction it's a very serious problem, the people with this condition are very hard to treat. In my opinion, one of the most relevant consequences of this is the damage to the family of the affected, because i think it should be hard to see how someone of you family is dying slowly, and they can't do anything to help, because they don't have money to pay the treatment, etc...

After a long term consumption of drugs, some consequences to the affected are appearing, like depression, changes in attitude/personality, brain degeneration, etc.

I fortunately don't know anyone addicted to drugs of abuse, but if i knew someone, i would try to help him/her.

I think the abuse of drugs is something that has no end, we try to fight everyday against it, but everyday becomes harder to erradicate. Everyday new scientist are creating new substances, and i don't know how, but they end in the wrong hands, i mean, the world of these kind of drugs is always moving on with a new kind of drug, an endless cycle.

Post Graduate Studies

In the future, I would like to do a PhD in Biochemistry, because i think it's a very interesting part of science. I'm studying Pharmacy, but i think it would be a very good complement if i want to be a complete professional ( but first i need to graduate from Pharmacy)

I would like to use that knowledge to discover new things, maybe create a new kind of medication to help people or something like that. But also i like ecology, and i´d like to study the enviroment and the things associated to it, make my own investigations, traveling and basically that kind of things.

I'd  like to study here in Chile, maybe in this own university or the PUC, that's something that i need to think about, but if i have the chance to study abroad, i'll definitely accept. (study in Harvad would be a dream hahaha). I'm thinking about how hard it could be, because i know so many people that works and pay their own course, i mean, it has to be very exhausting.

To me, it would be comfortable to take a part-time course, because I learn better in person, and also, i would meet new people, with the same interest in science, so that would be cool.

It was a hard decision to choose what to study, i was between Pharmacy and Biochemistry, but i decided to study Pharmacy, so, my motivation to learn  about Biochemistry stills there, so that's my plan.

Old and New Hobbies: From Collecting Stamps to Mountain Climbing

I like to learn new things , but one of the things that i keep doing since i learned it is play musical instruments like bass, drums, guitar...

I love music, i can't imagine my life without it, it's a very important aspect to make you understand your feelings, so i wanted to go deeper and explore that fascinating thing, so i decided to play guitar, that was the first instrument that i played in my life. That was at the age of 10-12 years (i'm not sure), in fact, it was my first experience playing music, with the pass of time, i learned how to play more instruments like i said before.

But that's not all, when i was a kid, i used to collect Sponge Bob stickers, because it was my favorite TV cartoon, so i asked my mom some of them, and when she arrived from work, she helped me to stick them in my wall (actually, I still have some of them)

In the other side, a hobby i would never have is collecting insects, like snails, spiders, etc. Because i think it's cruel to collect them, because it's hard to imitate the real life conditions, moreover, i don't like insects at all (but i least i defend them).

In the future i would like to do extreme sports, like skydiving and stuff, obviously I don't have the money to do that kind of things at this moment, but i pretend to do that kind of things when i grow up.

Our Amazing Human Body: Our Smart Brain et al.

The human body it's a very interesting concept for scientists, there are many things that we don't know about it. One of the most studied systems of the body it's the Limbic System and it's directly related to the brain.

The limbic system is a set of brain structures located in the brain. The function of this system consist of the physiological response to specific stimulus. It's in charge of emotions, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, the sense of smell and instinct . The emotional life resides in the limbic system, and it has a great deal to do with the formation of memories.

This system is located in the brain, on both sides of the thalamus, immediately beneath the cerebrum. It isn't very big, obviously smaller than the brain itself, it's a small part of it, but like i said before, it's very important physiologically speaking.

The lymbic sistem may present alterations like any other system. Some illness associated to it are: schizophrenia, limbic epilepsy, autism and dementia. This illness affects different parts of this system, causing certain effects and atypical behaviors.

It's a very hard job to keep the limbic system healthy, because there are so many things that may affect it and we don't know about it. But in the other side, there are a some things that we can do to keep it healthy like: do exercise, eat healthy food; but mainly do things we like and enjoy to stay away from stress and depression, and make grow up our mind.

The Best Concert Ever

My favourite thing in life is music. It makes you feel a lot of different emotions, depending on your mood.

One of my favourites bands is Muse, considered one of the best bands of alternative rock, because of their original style and their contribution in this musical genre.  they came to Chile in 2015, it was one of the most exciting days ever, they player in Movistar Arena. I clearly remember an amazing experience.

That day I woke up early I remember, to be one of the first people to enter to the show, When I got there, I met up with five friends of school, Muse was our favourite band so we wanted to be in first place. We have to wait a lot of time to see them play, we arrived there at 7 a.m. and the show was programmed to 8 p.m., so we bring some playing cards and food to survive that loooong hours.

Muse has been awarded for being the band with the best musical performance on stage, so we actually had a lot of expectations.

The show was amazing, it was more than our expectations, the show lasted 3 hours approx. and we didn't realize. They played their best songs with an amazing performance, they inflated giant black balloons! And they were bouncing in people's head and hands, and when the balloons exploded, they released a kind of serpentine with beautiful colours.The people there were completely crazy! all of them enjoying their songs, some of they were crying, others were screaming, etc. And for the show's end, nothing less than a "mosh pit".

It was definitively the best show I've ever assisted, the sound was great, the people I met there were amazing too, and all that things I mentioned before. I wasn't expecting anything less. Just amazing!

 

Your blogging experience

Well my blogging experience has been great, i feel comfortable with the result of the blogs, and also i have to say that the topics are very interesting! i mean, it's nice to do the blogs because, in my opinion, you keep entertained while you're doing them, some topics are more interesting than others, but that's something subjective.

I feel that my writing skills are more advanced now, because the fact that you have to write a blog once a week makes your English skills to increase. That's all about to be constant, so in my opinion, it has been a nice experience to work this way, if i had to recommend this method to learn English, i would definitely do that.

In the future, i'd like to work more with spoken English; i think the best way to learn a language is speaking it, with my classmates or Britain/American people, in that case, after learning English, they could teach us they slang and stuff, i think that would be interesting. But also I have to say that the teacher's activities should stay, they are very useful and make you learn new things, at least in my case.

Honestly, I’d like to write about conspiracies, futurism, music and stuff, I find interesting to write/talk about that topics , they have so many ideas to express, you can spend hours and hours talking/writing about that… 

From the invisible to the visible world and back...

I think the science it's something hard to understand, but when you get it, you realize that are so many things that you can do with it, even things we think  are impossible.

One of the relevant topics to talk about, it's the most resistant material in the world, i'm talking about Graphene.

Graphene it's a structure composed by pure carbon, a disposed in a hexagonal form, atomically speaking. It's about 200 times stronger than the steel. It' an allotrope of carbon.

This Allotrope it's used in bio medicine and electronic principally (it has another uses too). In bio medicine, it's used like an anti-carcinogenic agent, but in electronic, it's used to create circuits, that's because the Graphene it's an excellent electric conductor.

I think the Graphene it's going to be a very good friend during the career, because it has a lot of uses, and we don't know how many more uses it has. It could help us to create new substances, or other materials; honestly, i can't imagine in this moment how many uses it could has.

I choose it because in my opinion, it's very important to know about the material that will change the future, it's the more resistant material discovered ever, and it could pass a long time before we discover another material better than this.

Probably in the future the Graphene it's going to be used to create military technology i think, like bulletproof vest, military weapons like knife's , gun's , and stuff. I hope they use it with good purposes, i mean, in the scientific area.

I learned about this material when i was watching the news, i just remembered the name of it, so i decided to investigate more because i think it was amazing.

Few people know about this, i don't really know if it's going to be accepted or not, but I’m sure it's going to facilitate people's life in many ways, at work, a home...

The more disturbing thing is that it could be used with bad purposes, like , end human life's, destroy the environment, and things like that, but in my opinion, it has more advantages than disadvantages.

The most enjoyable subject...

When you start the academic year, there are some things to considerate about the career, like, if you like the subjects, teachers, academic environment, and other important stuff.

In my case, my favorite subject at the moment is chemistry. I think it has many interesting things, the reactions, understand how they happen, and other things related to it. (I’m not passionate or anything like that, i just like and that's all)

In classes, I’m focus on the teacher and what he/she says, because i think the teacher's comments are more relevant than copy the content without paying attention, but obviously i copy the content when i have to do it, but honestly, i hate to copy the content from a PowerPoint presentation, because my eyes get tired rapidly, that's because i wear glasses i think.

I like the subject because i think it's dynamic, easy (depending of the specific content), and interesting. I think it's important to know this basic chemistry, because it's the base of what are going to study years later.

In my opinion, my teachers aren't so good pedagogically speaking, that's why sometimes i have to study from YouTube or from chemistry books, depending on the case, and sometimes, i ask a mate to teach me something, they have good will, but they are a problem too, because there are too many of them in the classroom, so I have to sit at the end of the classroom when I’m late.

My two teachers, Parada and Atria, have a different way to teach each other. Parada it's more theoretical in his classes, and Atria teach all things solving exercises in front of all. In my opinion, the classes should be imparted with more exercises than theory, but well, at least i have been in both extremes.

Person/Expert you admire

The universe it's something endlessly, we know just a few things about them, there are many things that have't been discovered yet, so we are learning everyday new stuff about the universe.

One of the guys who made important contributions to science it's Carl Sagan (1934-1996), he was an american astronomer,  astrophysicist, astrobiologist and other things related to the outer space research. He contributed with investigations about extraterrestrial life, and one of the most important, was about the production of amino acid from basic chemicals by radiation. In my personal opinion, he is one of the most relevants and complete scientifics of the "new era" 

He was  a pioneer in exobiology, a science that studies the presence of life in the outer space, but it's just based on theorys by now, because there isn´t enough evidence to demonstrate the existence of life in the outer space.

And he also helped to discover the high temperatures of Venus, he basically studied the radio waves irradiated by Venus, and with other relevant information, he determined that the Temperature of Venus it's approximately 380 °C.

I admire him because he dedicated his life to study the biology in the outer space, and he also was one of the creators of the exobiology, it's important to recall that the exobiology it's a mix of astrophysics, biology and geology, so that make it a hard science to study and understand. There is something i forgot to say before, he also has a book and a documentary, both with the same name "Cosmos". I saw the documentary and i have to say that it's very interesting and the most important, it's inspiring.

My favourite book and film

The art can be expressed in many ways, but definitively one of the most complex in my opinion, is write a book. My favorite book is "Bonsai", i think it's a very rare book, i mean, it has a lot of details and secrets that you can't decipher just reading it once. It's a very short book, but it has a lot of hidden information, wich can help you to understand the story, because it's weird, i insist, but for me, it's very interesting (the school made me read it, it's the only book from school i liked).

 Otherwise, my favorite movie is "The Music Never Stopped", basically it's a story about a man, and how he loses his memory, while his dad tries to find a way to help him, and he discovered that the music he used to listen make him remind some things. In my opinion, this movie it's perfect because it mix strong feelings, with a touch of reality, and i promise this movie will make you cry, if you haven't seen it yet.
I recommend you to see this two masterpieces because, emotionally speaking, are very powerful.
They are going to make you learn about life and love, and probably, change your perspective about these two topics. By the way, If i haven't told you anything about "Bonsai" it's because i want you to read it, it's an amazing book, so i don't want to spoiler anything. But i warn you, be careful with the details.

Gabriel Sawyer and Henry Sawyer, from "The Music Never Stopped".

A photograph you like

My favourite photograph is about one of the most amazing landscapes that i ever seen. It's about Pumalin Park, located in the south of Chile, in the X region.
The photograph was taken by Londie G. Paladelsky in 2011, a Canadian photographer of landscapes and outdoor activities and places.
I my opinion, this photograph shows the beauty of the Chilean nature and how it has been conserved, because it's something that people don't want to destroy, and they actually can't ¿Why? Because it's a private land. Pumalin Park belonged to Donald Tompkins, a North-American ecologist who had conserved the most national parks of Chile. Unfortunately, he died in 2015, but before his dead, he donated his lands to the Chile's government, with the commitment of keep protecting and conserving that lands.
Why i like this photo? because a was there in 2016, in holidays, and i felt all the good vibes of that place, so natural, so peaceful, full of wild animals and insects. That made me understand that natural crations are the most beautiful things in the world and the humans will never reach that level of perfection. We have a lot of things to learn about the nature.

Music in My Life

Well, i honestly love all kind of music, some genres more than others, but the point is that i don't discriminate musically speaking.
My favorite music genres are rock and indie, but i prefer indie than rock, because the indie has a vintage essence that i personally love, my favorite indie singer is Chet Faker, but i also like other singers not related to indie  like The Weeknd and Eddie Vedder, and obviosly his band, Pearl Jam.
I started to play instruments when i was a kid, so i have experience in that way, my favorite instrument is definitely the bass guitar, because i think it's a very important and a versatile instrument in the structure of a song. I also play drums and guitar, but in the band that i have with my friends i'm the singer.
I have many musicians friends, one of them plays piano, other plays trumpet, etc.
When i was a younger, i used to listen metal, because my dad likes metal, so he show me his favorites metal bands, like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Accept, and that kind of stuff. So we used to go to see them in their live shows, honestly, i don't listen metal actually, but when i hear a song, i keep it , because it brings me good memories (i still going to metal live shows with my dad)
The music that i always remember is from the movie "Into the wild", Eddie Vedder wrote the songs for that movie, and i think they have a deep meaning, that movie has the best soundtrack ever!

Your favourite piece of technology

My favorite piece is technology is definitely the radio. I think is necessary to have at least one radio at home, because it brings you music, information and other things. I had my first radio when i was like 4 years old, because my parents wanted me to listen classical music, like Mozart, Beethoven and that kind of stuff. Anyway, while i was growing up i started to use the radio at my own way, listening the music i like, that was when i was between 8-10 years old, but in those times i used to listen music that i don't actually listen, that's because the radio programs transmitted different songs or different musical genres, i like that because thanks to the radio, you can increase you musical knowledge. I personally use my radio everyday at night, because before sleeping, i listen music on the radio (the kind of music depends on my mood), sometimes i listen the radio programs, but i also connect my smartphone to the radio and listen my own music. I think the life without the radio will be poor (culturally speaking), because it provides plenty of information and culture, i mean, news and music. I think is a cool combination! because you can listen the things you like and also kept informed.

Getting to know each other

I'm Felipe (i actually hate my name) but that's not very important. I'm 18 years old, but in somehow i feel older, because in my opinion, i had live a lot of things.
I'am a music maniac, i'm in love with music, i like to hear it and play it. When i was 11 years old, my father taught me how to play acoustic guitar, it took me a lot of time to learn how to play it, but i finally made it, and while i a was groing up, i learned to play different instruments and i deeply enjoy playing them. Actually, i know how to play drums, bass, electric guitar and my favorite thing in all the world: sing.
I have 2 rock bands with my friends, and i´m the singer of both. That made me very proud because nobody taught me how to it.
I also do cardistry, you probably are thinking "What´s cardistry?" well, basically is shuffle the cards in a very impressive way.
About my attitude and preferences, i like to speak a lot and meet new people, i love tattos and travel around my country, i'm in love with the south of Chile.
My both parents are engineers, but i only live with my mom and my brother Fabian, he's 15 years old.
I see my father very frecuently, and we always play songs together, that´s one of my favorite things in all the world, my other favorite thing is lasagna, nothing is compared to that god's delight.

Why did you choose your career?

Why did i choose my carreer?
it's a very difficult question to me, because before choosing it, i was very confused about what i'm going to do in life.
When i was in school i used to love chemistry and also it was very easy to me, but my favorite science is definitely biology, so i had to search a carreer related with both things, and after thinking a few months i decided to study Pharmacy.
But honestly study Pharmacy isn't my dream or something like that, actually, i want to have my own barbershop and fabricate my own line of hair and beard products, so i think study pharmacy is a very good complement to my final goal.
Like i said before i was confused, because i wanted to study biology in a moment of my life, and Pharmacy was also a very strong option. So i had to make a deep research about these two carreers and compare them
But Pharmacy had better statistics than biology, like empleability, salary and work field. So that's why i decided to study Pharmacy