Oscars (by Raul)

Yesterday the 81st Academy Awards were hosted in L.A. They award the best pictures in 24 different categories. The most relevant winners were Slumdog Millionaire with 8 Oscar statues, after The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button with 3 and The Dark Night & Milk went home with 2 statues for each picture.
I really didn't see them but I believe that they were awarded fairly, the movies that deserved the golden statue won it. Benjamin Button was an excellent film according to me & should have won the best film category but the truth is that I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire so I cant really argue until I've seen it. Heath Ledger won best actor in supporting role, although people might argue that he only won because he killed himself the truth is that he did an excellent job as "The Joker" he would have won it anyhow, maybe the odds wouldn't have been to much in his favor but he would have won.

Journey´s End & WW1 (By Jose Maria & Raul)

It is a book written by R. C. Sherriff in 1928 and it was first published in 1929.

It is set in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, in 1918, Journey's End gives an idea of the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I. The story plays out in the officers' dugout over four days from 18 March 1918 to 21 March 1918.

Dugouts were an important part of the trenches in the World War as they were used as an area to rest and carry out other activities such as eating. Dugouts would usually be placed 30 feet underground with concrete, wood and/or steel to withstand the shock of artillery and would have a set of stairs leading down to them.

A soldiers time in the front-line trench was usually short; from one day to a couple of weeks at a time before being relieved.On an individual level, a typical British soldier's year could be divided as follows:
15% front line
10% support line
30% reserve line
20% rest
25% other (travelling, hospital, etc.)

Here's a link for a review of the play:
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/printed-books/journey-s-end-r-c-sherriff/1088655/

Emo Diary (Jose Maria)

16th January
I´m tyred, I´m tyred of people looking at me in a stange way, I´m tyred of people telling me I look weird. I´m tyred of the people.
Since I changed my "look" (that´s how they call it) on holidays, when I came back school, my friends don´t hang out as much as before with me anymore and when I talk to them they get really nervous, as if i was a sort of freak or something strange. I´m still me, but i decided to change my appearance because I wanted to be different the mass, different from me...
18th January
Yesterday was as boring and depressive as previous days. But today I met new people. People that are like, people who I can talk too, people which people look in a strange way too. They dress like me and act like me. They´re called "Emos".
19th January
It looks like things are starting to get better. Today I didnt sit by myself in class. I sat with Barbara, Jason, Mary and Paul. They´re the guys I met yesterday, they´re really nice and te girl, Mary, think she´s very pretty. I think I micht actually have found the ´group´I belong to.
21st January
Oh my God! It was amazing, I kissed mary at the cinema yesterday. I can´t wait to see her on Monday.
My parents are concerned that I spend much time in my bedroom, but they don´t understand I want to be away from the society.
23rd January
What is the point of life? What´s the point of life if you can´t change anything? What is the point of being alive if nobody hears you? What is the point of being alive if nobody hears you? What is the point of being alive if you lost all your friends? What is the point of life if the person you loved cheated on you with your best friend?...

Emo Diary (Raul)

May 14
Today was a different day. School was boring as usual, everyone ignored me & my friend juan since people around here can't . At the end of school day, I talked again with the girl I like. She is being more realistic about us & she started looking at us with different eyes. It's really good that she understands us now. I invited her to go out in the afternoon & she agreed. On the walk we saw a march of us (emos) walk by, I totally forgot about the march me & juan had been looking forward all week for it, well...
At the end of our walk we saw a group of of punks that told me they would be coming and searching for us. They said we should be scared. I really hope they didn't mean it, because I don't want anymore fights in this city. I don't like it when people get hurt.

Emos!!!

Emos are a urban tribe which have been on the news lately. They are very emo-tional (where their name comes from) & often wear black clothes topped off with the hair covering half of their face. Our personal opinion about emos is that they are very very sensitive & don´t show any violent reactions except for hurting themselves, which make people belive that they can treat them bad or discrimite them just because they will not fight back. Also, we think that the main problem is that because they go totally against culture or rules so noone can really understrand their thoughts or opinions excewpt for other Emos. Its not that we dont like them but we dont understand why they have such a strange behavour.

Political Prisioner Diary (Jose Maria)

Name: Charles Banks
Religion: Jewish
Time Location: 2nd WW
Family: Wife, 2 sons (all of them tortured and killed)
Job: Journalist (Against Hitler)

11th November 1942
I´ve just found this pen at the bottom of my bed.
I´m confused, I know they got me, but images are
confusing. I dont know where I am, I dont know where
I was and I dont know what will happen to me. An
interrogative probably, and then I shall be killed. I`ll
try find another pen...

13th November (you know the year)
Nothing. Nothing and Nothing.

14th November...(mmm)
Early morning, the guards woke me up and I was taken
to a room with nothing but a lamp, a recorder and a
table. I was threatened with killing my family my family
if i didn't speak. I had too, I didn't have an option. I told
them where the information was, all the newspapers I've
published, all the files and documents I had.
Everything is gone.

15th November (don't know what to think...)
I'm hurt. I couldn'r help it. They hit me. They wanted me
to tell them the truth. I won't, even if I die I won't.
I don't know if I will be alive by tomorrow...

Historical Links In Animal Farm (Raul & Jose Maria)

George Orwell refers in "Animal Farm" to communism and totalitarianism involves countries like Germany and Russia and talks about Russian Revolution and 2nd World War.
Links to characters:
-Mr Jones=Tsar (Nicholas II)
-Snowball=Trotsky
-Napoleon=Stalin
-Old Mayor=Lenin
-Squealer=Goebbels (Hitler´s Propagandist)
-Animal Farm=USSR