Luis Rodrigo Bravo Sigüenza                       

"When YouTube Gets Boring”

One of the first things Internet-fans do when they open their web browser is to get into YouTube. It is just like an instinct. They pour themselves onto the computer, watching videos for hours at a time. Those who everyday enjoy the tons of fun YouTube brings might not remember how Internet entertainment was before it, or may not know what's outside this huge video-sharing portal. I must admit I was a YouTube addict, but once I fell sick in bed and had to spend my days watching hundreds of videos. It turned really frustrating when I did not know what to look for anymore! Fortunately, with a little help from Google search, now it's easy to find different kind of sites in which people can escape for a while from boredom. In this way, someone can spend time learning, discussing, drawing, knowing people, making music and several activities more.

Every so often is hard to find on-line activities that combine fun with philanthropic goals. Thanks to my English teacher now I know about site that allows us to mix both of these factors in a pretty admirable way.

This non-profit website is called FreeRice, in which people play to battle against world hunger and at the same time they extend their vocabulary. This is an idea developed by the United Nations in 2007 and supported by numerous sponsors.

The way to play FreeRice is really simple. The main page shows by default the English Grammar subject and the user must chose the correct answer for every question given. The difficulty of these questions changes depending on the level we are playing in, so as player responds correctly, the level increases. If someone wishes to change the level, there’s an option below the “game screen” to do it. When the answer is incorrect, the level is decreased by one point, and the same question is repeated in order to learn it correctly.

There are 13 different subjects included in FreeRice classified in six main areas: Art, Chemistry, English, Geography, Language Learning and Math. Whatever the subject is, the method is the same. Each correct answer means 10 grains of rice donated to poor people. A wrong answer does not reduce the number of grains donated but allows continuing where the count was.

I’m sure people will ask if donating grain by grain is worth the effort. Looking at the numbers, from October 7, 2007 to August 2009, 787,320,460 grains of rice have been donated. According to the Rice Association, one pound of rice contains 29,000 grains. That means 27,145 pounds donated in less than two years. It is an important quantity from this point of view.

Helping others and having fun at the same time is a very noble way to spend time in the Internet. Now, as their slogan say: “Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple game that increases your knowledge”.

Sources:

www.FreeRice.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeRice

http://www.riceassociation.org.uk/factsandfigures. htm

Life through a Vagabond’s Eyes

The world is full of people who have everything in the palm of their hands, who are usually complaining, and there are people who have almost nothing. But everyday on my way back home after classes, when I was in high school, I used to see one man on Zaragoza Avenue who made me think about how despite a terrible situation you can enjoy and appreciate life.

This man was an aged vagabond often seen wandering in the center of town, carrying a lot of plastic bags. First time I saw him was six months ago; I used to take my friend Anthony to the bus stop in Alameda park, so I had to drive on Zaragoza. It was not a long distance, but it could be terrible because of sun’s heat, as hot as hell we thought, the slow movement of that sea of cars, and the fact that my old Topaz ’92 had no air conditioner. Although it was like a trip into an oven, Anthony had always something funny to say to make it easy.

One day, at the busy Pasteur-Zaragoza’s corner we saw this old man out of a drugstore sitting on an old wooden chair: thin silver threads were growing on his head, with a wrinkled brown skin covered with messed clothes, and it’s color implied that the smog of the city had been covering it for many decades; the injuries of his skeletal hands could have been the result of a severe arthritis combined with the everyday bag-carrying. His little legs made him no taller than five feet. In general, I felt his whole body was not stronger than the glass of the drugstore window behind him. With his eyes focused on his dreams, I was not able to see their color, but even so, I could feel the peacefulness they emitted in that comfortable rest.

With nothing else to see but a red light over the cars and boring rows of cars, we stared at him for a while until the stop light turned green. Yes, that was the first time I saw him; we did not know his name, so Anthony called him “Engineer”, making fun of my professional studies.

 Since then I have met him several times in the same area. After a couple of these meetings, I could notice (without having exchanged a single word with him) that he was a friendly person. As he walks down the streets he says hello to quite a few people, and they return the greeting to the smiling wanderer. When he arrives at his usual location, outside the drugstore and he leaves his load (one day I discovered that he had crushed cans inside the bags). The smile never disappears from his face. But what really drew my attention was the fact that he was not a criminal, because it is not surprising that someone without a formal job incurs in robbery or illegal activities to earn “easy money”. I knew this after making a few questions to a friendly butcher who also greeted our man. He said that the vagabond takes all those crushed cans to recycling centers, and gets enough money to buy food. In fact, he enjoys doing it.

I’m convinced that if we could learn to live like “The Engineer” does, always smiling, always in a happy mood and staying away from all that material things, such like money, that make us unable to see how beautiful life is, we would achieve the happiness we’re always looking for in our daily complaining.

-A Game Boy

-Your Red Version

-A good pair of hands and a Brain

Georgia says Russia behind recent attacks