CARNIVAL DAYS

This weekend, we celebrated carnival in my town. Carnival is an event that happens only once a year, and it's one of the most outstanding ones between younger people in rural areas.

I'm in a group called "Els Festucs", we all wear a different costume every year revolving around a character. We also prepare a few choreographies using short parts of popular songs. This year we dressed up like the people in the video clip "Mamma mia" from Abba, the attire consists of a full bodysuit made of shiny fabric with very big golden sleeves and platform shoes, it's beautiful. The woman who made them got really emotional when she saw us wearing her design in real life, she worked extremely hard to finish the work on time, considering we're about a hundred and thirty participants.

Last year we won the first prize for the dancing contest, this time, on the other hand, I feel like people don't put enough effort or energy into the choreographies. I'm not sure we will win this time because we make lots of mistakes.

PD: We won!!!

FIVE DIFERENT SHOTS AND ANGLES

1. POINT OF VIEW SHOT:

I liked this picture because of the intensity of the neon lights, you can place yourself in the person's situation and imagine what they felt like in the water slide. It almost looks like they're travelling through a portal and are about to appear in a magical world.

2. CLOSE UP SHOT:

I chose this shot because I found beautiful the colour combination. I also thought it was an interesting detail that the candies in the background were out of focus, giving more importance to those in the front.

3. HIGH ANGLE:

In this image, crown shyness is portrayed. Crown shyness occurs when many trees are together and their leaves grow in a unique way where they don't touch each other, leaving empty spaces. I picked this angle because you can see how tall the trees are, making you feel very small.

4. WIDE SHOT:

The fourth picture is a wide landscape. In the front, a few birds are flying close to the surface of the mirror-like lake. In the background, a forest goes around the coast. Behind the trees, you can see the peaks of some mountains. I chose it because it made me feel relaxed and calm.

5. SLANTED ANGLE:

This is a picture I took of my cat, her name is Lulu. I was trying to decorate a box by wrapping it with paper but she decided that laying in it to take a nap was more important. I chose the image because I thought it looked kind of cool. 

THE FIRST PONG MACHINE INSTALLED

This picture was taken in November 1972, the first Pong video game machine was installed at Andy Cap's Tavern by Allan Alcron and Nolan Bushnell. A week after the installation of the machine, it stopped working correctly because it was overflowing with the quarters clients inserted to play. 

Pong was one of the earliest arcade games produced and the first one developed by Atari. The creation of the game started as a training exercise for Allan, Bushnell had hired him because of his experience in electrical engineering and computer science. Nolan explained to him what he wanted him to implement in the design: digits for scorekeeping, two paddles and one moving spot. 

Bushnell decided to assign the project to Alcron after visiting the Magnavox Profit Caravan where he played the table tennis demonstration and felt it lacked some quality. Allan designed the first Pong machine and added special features to make it more catching in August 1972.

HYEONSEO LEE'S ESCAPE FROM NORTH KOREA

Hyeonseo is a woman who recently made a TED Talk explaining her experience as a former North Korean citizen and how she managed to escape.

Hyeonseo had a family where getting food was never an issue, she didn't know what hunger was. One day, her mother received a letter from one of her coworkers saying how by the time she was reading it, her and her family would be dead because of the extreme starvation they were suffering. That was the first time Hyeonseo heard the people in her country were hurting.

Due to the famine of the 1990s, over a million North Koreans died. She was secretly sent to China at the age of seventeen to live with some distant relatives and she would not see her family for the next fourteen years. While Hyeonseo was in China, she was captured by the Chinese police. They asked her infinite questions to make sure she was a native Chinese since someone had accused her of being North Korean. If a refugee gets repatriated, they send them back to their native country where the government imprisons tortures them or preforms public executions.

Ten years later, Lee restarted her life in South Korea. She started having problems with her identity, who she was and where she was from. After some time, Hyeoseo got a phone call, she was informed that her family would be moved to an isolated part of the countryside because some of the money she sent got intercepted. She was able to guide her relatives until Southeast Asia, during that time they were almost caught several times. One of them, Hyeonseo had to pretend her family was deaf and she was their caretaker because they couldn't speak Chinese.

They were caught in Laos's frontier, Lee had to bribe the guards and they let them out. Not long later, the family was put in jail once again. This time she didn't have enough money to pay for another fine. An unknown man saw how she was struggling and gave her all the money necessary. He wanted to help North Korean people, not expecting anything in return. They got reunited in South Korea and began working and training to adapt to the new lifestyle.

Hyeonseo Lee how explains she wants to give North Koreans a chance to escape and prosper.

THE LIVES OF YAKUZA WOMEN

Yakuza women are the wives of the men that belong to the Japanese mafia. In Japan, it's a delicate subject to talk about and you must never pronounce the name "Yakuza" in a normal speaking voice. Instead, you have to mention it in a low voice tone or rather make a gesture with your hands pointing at your cheek and then moving your finger along the cheekbone.

Anh Wisle, a Ykuza model

The women are very reserved and it's complicated to gain their confidence, in other to get closer to them you must gain their husband's trust first. Their everyday life is the same as the one any other Japanese housewife would have. There's only one difference, they will always be anxious to know if their husband will come home at night.

You cannot become a Yakuza as a woman, only men can. However, a woman who gets married to a Yakuza man automatically forms part of it. Their responsibilities depend on the status the husband has. Per example, a woman who is married to the leader is the consultant, she must manage the finances of the group.

All Yakuzas have a tattoo which covers the back and extremities, they act as armour or protections (Omamori) and are not meant o be shown. Once a woman is married to a man in that cercle, it's extremely hard to leave and get reintegrated into society.

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