BITSTRIPS

This post has been written by Pablo Álvarez - 3ºB, school year 2016/17

Bitstrips is a funny application  if we use it but it could be irritating if we use to insult or offend other people.

Bistrips is a web or mobile application that allows users to create a cartoon of themselves and their friends as the characters. It was created in 2007 by Jacob Blackstork. Many  facebook users find bistrips irritating. You can create ridiculous situations with your characters hoping it will make everybody laugh. Bistrips has had 11 million downloads.

People can  create an avatar with hairstyles, clothes and other physical attributes to  correspond with their real appeareance. Then  they customize scenarios invented by bistrips in order to generate their own stories and you can choose a caption to reflect what they are feeling and what are they doing.

The creator of the game , Blackstock claims that bistrips is not a game but a new way to interact with your friends. The app may be seen a bit fun but it has other uses, too. It has allegedly  helped motivate children and autistic youngsters.

Thanks Pablo, you have done a fantastic job!!!! Congrats!!!

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS

This post has been written by Aarón Pereira - 3ºB, school year 2016/17

Up to 20 million Americans are afraid of Friday the 13th because they think it is an unlucky day. Some are so scared and they spend the day in bed. Others won´t drive because they think they could have a car accident. There is even an American film called Friday the 13th It is about the awful things that happen at a summer camp.

"The Last Supper". The fear of Friday the 13th comes from a belief that Friday is an unlucky day and 13 an unlucky number. Some Christians believe that 13 is an unlucky number because there were 13 people at The Last Supper and one of them, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ and they also believed that Jesus died on a Friday.

Finally, in lots of hotels they think that the 13 is not a good number and they skip the 13th floor in the numbers of the lift. They go from the 12th to the 14th floor. 

Well done, Aarón!!!!

INSTAGRAM

This post has been written by María Rodríguez - 3ºA, school year 2016/17

Instagram is a programme you can install onto your smartphone. This programme allows you to take pictures, apply some special effects to them, and share them with the other Instagram users. You can receive comments and likes for them.

Instagram is also a social network, you can have friends, follow people and people can follow you.

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010, and in January 2011 they added hashtags to help users discover pictures they could find interesting. 

The service quickly gained popularity with over 100 million active users in 2012 , and nowadays it has about 1000 millions of active users.In April 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion.

On December 13th 2013, Instagram added Direct, a feature that allows users to send photos to specific people directly from the app. 

On October 22nd 2015, Instagram launched Boomerang, an app where you can shoot a one second burst of five photos. These pictures are turned into a silent video that plays forwards and then reverses in a loop. 

The popstar and Disney Channel actriz Selena Gomez is the most popular instagrammer with more 101M followers.The footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has 83.8M followers.

Well done, María! Incredible work!!

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

This post has been written by Manuel Marcos Otero - 3ºA, school year 2016/17

Does anybody know anything about this "young" lady? Sure, this is Elizabeth II, Queen of England.

First of all, she is the longest reigning monarch in British history. She is also the oldest monarch to have celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, that is, she has been 60 years on the throne. It was celebrated in 2012. During that year, she travelled across the UK and visited England, Scotland, Wales and Nothern Ireland. She gave a concert at Buckingham Palace and there was a river pageant on the River Thames.

She is considered a warm and a nice monarch and she has been a good friend of many world leaders, such as Nelson Mandela or George Bush, for example.

Nowadays, the Queen continues to carry out a full programme of events.

Apart from her Royal duties, she has other interests and hobbies, such as photography or animals. She is a dog lover - she has even created a new dog breed - "the dorgi".

She is very fond of horses too. She loves going to races and some of her horses have won at Ascot.

In short, she has been an important figure: form a young girl who did not expect to become a queen to an iconinc figure who has ruled for more than 60 years. 

Thanks Manuel for your nice post. Good job!!

THE FORESTS OF BRITAIN

This post has been written by Asier Cendón, 3ºA ESO, school year 2016/17

This is the forest where Robin Hood "lived" together with his Merry Men. It is situated near Nottingham, in the North of England. It has lots of oaks.

It is a Royal Park. It belongs to the Queen. It is open to the public in some parts and it has got deer.

It is placed in Essex. It is one of the forests that was considered as a Royal Hunting Forest. It has got incredibly ancient trees. Some over a 1000 years old!!!!

This forest is placed in the South East of England, near London, in the Epping District.

Finally, the Forest of Dean which is near Gloucester. In the old times, a big area of this forest was kept for the Royal Family. They came here to hunt.

Good job, Asier. Thanks a lot!!!!

THANKSGIVING 2016

LAYLA: THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG

Layla is based on a Persian poem which tells the story of a man who falls in love with a beautiful girl. Unfortunately, the girl's father doesn't allow her to marry that man. Eventually, he went mad.

The story resembles those of impossible couples, Romeo and Juliet,... or many more related to unrequited loves. 

But this one (Layla) became very popular due to the great importance and the relationship among the characters:

- Eric Clapton, the composer of the song.

- George Harrison, one of the members of The Betles.

- Pattie Boyd (or Pattie Harrison), George Harrison's wife.

George Harrison married Pattie Boyd in 1966. He was a famous Beatle and she was a popular model.They met when The Beatles were filming A Hard Day's Night. The marriage lasted eleven years but finally they divorced after periods of drugs, infidelities and alcohol.

 

Pattie Boyd and George Harrison

During the time they were happy George composed beautiful songs, such as Something which was written for Boyd. Some consider this song as one the most beautiful love compositions ever.

Something - George Harrison

But Eric Clapton, one of Harrison's best friends at that moment, fell in love with Pattie. Clapton was not corresponded as Pattie struggled to save her marriage with Harrison. She became Clapton's obsession.

Thanks to this difficult situation, Layla was made up! This song is considered a masterpiece and it has been played all over the years. 

Layla - Eric Clapton

As Eric Clapton didn't give up and The Harrisons kept on with their marital problems, Layla left George and married Eric in 1979. 

Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd

If Something and Layla are extremely good songs, Clapton also wrote Wonderful Tonight which was also devoted to this woman. 

Let us choose a modern version for this song in an attempt of trying to get closer to your likes. If we fail, just listen to good music!!!! 

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton

Eventually, the whole story is here, in Pattie Boyd's words. Listen to this video and find out who she has considered the "love of her life". 

Pattie Boyd

STAR WARS

The long awaited time has finally arrived. This past December the new sequel to the Star Wars films, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was finally released after many years of waiting. This blockbuster film was released just in time for the Christmas holidays and is bound to continue breaking many box office records in terms of sales. Few films in recent memory have generated as much interest as this one. 

There are many reasons for this interest, among which we can find the fact that George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars universe, sold the rights to the production of these films to Disney. Many people were interested to see in which artistic direction Disney would take the film, and if they could live up to the expectations that George Lucas has made for the fans of the films.

   

    Without giving away any spoilers of the plot, we will provide a short summary of the film. Being a sequel, the film largely follows the same trajectory as in the previous films in the series. The film begins where the last film leaves off with the Rebellion maintaing its fight against the Empire. A Rebel pilot has a droid which contains the secret map with instructions to find Luke Skywalker, a jedi knight and the main protagonist from the previous films. The pilot intends to return this droid to the Rebellion so they can use this information to find Luke to help in their fight against the Empire. However, the Empire does everything in its power to ensure that the Rebels do not obtain the information contained within this droid.

     This film is notable for its introduction of new characters into the Star Wars universe, as well as its inclusion of classic characters from the previous films. We recommend that you see this film for yourself and let us know what you think!

      Have a good day, and
            MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!!

Thanks Mr. Connor Eason for this fantastic post and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU too!!!!!

THE THIN WHITE DUKE

David Robert Jones was born in Brixton (London, England) on January 8th 1947, so Happy Birthday!!!!!

By the year 1966 he became David Bowie. He chose this surname after Jim Bowie, the designer of a popular fighting knife called the Bowie Knife!

Bowie has been a singer for more than fifty years. In fact, he is more than a singer. He is a composer, a writer, an actor, a producer,... He is a reference for many artistic movements and he has a great influence on a big number of musicians nowadays. His lyrics are deep and a lot of times they are based on literature and art. Many times he just cared about exploring new types of music instead of looking for success. He has placed music in the category of art in capital letters.

His first steps are to be found in the psychodelic rock that later turned into Glam rock. We can also find him in funk and after being in Germany he returned to England to lead the New Romantics Underground Movement. He has also written quite a lot of popular pop songs and he has even tried electronic music.

So, let's listen to some of his songs to have an idea of his work now that he is about to release Balckstar, his new album.

SPACE ODDITY (1969).-

At the same time that Men were about to reach the Moon.

CHANGES (1971)

HEROES (1977).- 

In the late seventies Bowie moved to Berlin and there he composed a three album tryptich. Heroes is the second composition.

Heroes, the song, tells the story of two lovers who meet at the Berlin Wall. It is a sad song.

ASHES TO ASHES (1980).-

This song belongs to the New Romantic Underground Movement. It became a hit in the UK and was number one in that country.

BLUE JEAN (1984)

LOVE IS LOST. REMIX. (2013).-

Such a smart video matches perfectly well with the song.
Love is Lost contains recognizable parts of Ashes to Ashes maybe just trying to show Bowie's rebirth after the health problems that kept him away from the world of music.

But, the best is yet to come...

MY NAME IS BOND, JAMES BOND

We are deadly sure than when Ian Flemin wrote his first James Bond novel, he did not realize how popular his secret agent would be.

007, Bond's code number, is a British secret agent that works for the British Crown. Although he works worldwide, he can be easily recognised by his English manners. He is smart, he is polite, he shows good manners, he knows how to behave in every difficult situation he has to face, and he has a high sense of patriotism. 

In short, Bond is Great Britain.

The character has gone through a growth in his personality. At first, Bond was just a secret agent working for Her Majesty but nowadays, the current James, has undergone some changes in his personality. Bond is a cold, tough guy who does not show his feelings and does not get involved with the rest of the characters but, sometimes, the last James Bond can feel and can fail. 

But he still owns these well-known "likes":

- ALCOCHOL: Bond always drinks Martini but... his way!!!

 - WOMEN: From the first Bond's girl (Ursula Andres) to last (Monica Bellucci), being a Bond's girl has been considered a priviledge. Actresses have not to be good at acting but they must very, very pretty. Even beauty is placed above age. We mus keep in mind that Bellucci is in her fifties!!!



This Italian actress has been the last signing.

All of them only appear in one film and leave room for others.

- CARS: Cars are one of Bond's soft spot. This feature has been a good way of advertising for Aston Martin, the British car manufactuting company.

"Q" is the person in charge of showing James all the special cars prepared for him and cars go together with the rest of the gadgets: the watch, the mobile phone,... all made for the occasion.

- THE ACTOR: All of them have become very famous. Playing Bond can be tiring as many spectators assossiate actors with the character for life!!!!

From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, all of them have been handsome, athletic,... they have followed the stereotype but evolution is evident!!! It is not just the colour of the hair or that sometimes Mr Craig does not wear a tuxedo... it is that James has entered the XXI century!!!

WE'LL MEET IN SEPTEMBER AGAIN!!!

Well, it is time to say goodbye. We hope you have used and learnt from this blog as much as you did last year!!
Anyway, all the members of the English Department wish you a happy summer to all of you. We will meet in September again so enjoy your summer holidays. You deserve it!!
See you later aligator!!!
Bye.bye!!!

SAINT GEORGE'S DAY: 23rd April

St. George is the patron saint of England. 

Our aim in this post is not to talk about who St. George was or what he did but we will talk about symbols and emblems. Today, April 23rd, St. George gives us the excuse to talk about them!!

THE ANTHEM: God save the Queen is the British Anthem and it represents the whole of the UK but many times it is used as the English Anthem. Wales and Scotland have their songs which they sing, especially when playing against England in sport matches. Land of may Fathers is sung by Welsh people and Scottish people sing Flower of Scotland and Scotland the Brave. 

THE COURT OF ARMS: On the left, the shield is supported by the English lion. On the right, it is supported by the Unicorn of Scotland. The unicorn is chained because in medieval times a free unicorn was considered a very dangerous beast.

The Court of Arms is used by the Queen.

THE SHIELD: The shield contains the Three Lion's Crest to represent England. It is ususally used as a badge.

THE ROSE: The rose is the floral emblem of England. The fower was adopted since the time of the Wars of Roses (civil wars between the house of Lancaster whose emblem was the red rose and the house of York whose emblem was the white rose).

ENGLISH FLAG: St. George's cross is usually used as the flag of England and of the flags that are contained in the British flag. (The Union Jack)

English flag

British flag

THE MOTTO OF ENGLAND: 'Dieu et mon Droit', (God and my right) was first used by King Richard I and adopted as the royal motto of England in the time of Henry VI.

Eventually, let's go back to our first character in this post, St. George.

There are many legends used to talk about this figure. Let us mention  one of them, the most romantic one which is summarize in this sentence: St. George fought against a dragon (Devil) to rescue a princess in danger. 

.

Maybe you have met your St. George. Some have already met him!!!

CHARLES MARTINET

Post written by Ángel Raga, 3ºB.

Charles Martinet was born on September 17, 1955. He is an American actor and voice actor. He provides the voice of Mario in the Nintendo's game. He is also Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Toadsworth, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, among other characters from the same series. He plays the majority of the male characters.

He has been working for Nintendo since 1990. He started voicing Mario with a system called "Mario in Real-Time" or "MIRT". He had sensors on his face that drove his facial movements to a Mario's head on a screen. Now he is the official voice of Mario.

He is also an actor. He started performing Shakespeare's plays. In fact, he says that Mario's voice is based on his voice for Gremio, a character from The Taming of Shrew. He played Michael Douglas' father in the film The Game.

He can speak French and Spanish and, suprisingly, a little BIT of Italian!!

His favourite actors are Robert de Niro, Collin Firth and Robin Williams.