Este blog es sobre libros, notas, fotografías, pensamientos, personajes, historia, ciencia y cualquier cosa interesante que se me ponga en frente, bueno si tiene la suerte de brincar la cerca de mi atención andariega.
I didn' t want to convert this blog of thoughts that were not mine, but I found again a beautiful text that I want to remember forever. The only thing that I want to say is : Be happy today, and do not wait until tomorrow.
HAPPINESS IS A JOURNEY
We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are.
After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation,or when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.
There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special. And remember that time waits for no one. So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, Until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, Until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, Until you start work, Until you retire, Until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, Until Saturday morning, until you get a new car or home, Until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer , Until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, Until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, Until you've sobered up, until you die, until you are born again, To decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy Happiness is a journey, not a destination
Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt, And dance like no one's watching.
La primera vez que escuché acerca de los cuatro acuerdos fue en un curso de liderazgo. La persona que nos estaba dando una de las pláticas nos recomendó que leyéramos el libro "Los cuatro Acuerdos". Algún tiempo después tuve la oportunidad de empezar a leer el libro, pero ¡oh desgracia! No lo seguí leyendo porque la forma en como se encuentra redactado me fue no del todo convincente, bueno el caso es que no lo seguí leyendo. Algún tiempo después alguien me mando un mail con el título "Los cuatro acuerdos" y recordé aquella plática, el libro, cómo intente empezar a leer el libro pero no pude. Total que abrí la presentación y me encontré con los maravillosos cuatro acuerdos. Me ha gustado tanto la presentación que a lo mejor intento leer el libro algún día. Y no quiero que se hagan malas ideas del libro, mejor prueben por ustedes mismos y tal vez me recomendaran retomar la lectura.
Se le llama "cuatro acuerdos" a cuatro compromisos que todos deberíamos tener con nuestra propia persona si es que buscamos la felicidad en nuestras vidas. Muchas personas son muy sabias y jamás han escuchado sobre los cuatro acuerdos pero los aplican cotidianamente. A otros, como a mí nos hace falta que nos hagan un recordatorio de los compromisos que nos pueden llevar a ser más libres y a actuar con mayor plenitud en nuestras vidas. Aquí dejo los cuatro acuerdos para mí a ver si de esa manera los aplico y si a alguien también le funcionan, le comparto.
Título del libro: Los cuatro Acuerdos (Un libro de sabiduría Tolteca) Autor: Miguel Ruíz Editorial Urano
LOS CUATRO ACUERDOS
1. Sé impecable con tus palabras Es el más importante y más difícil de cumplir porque muchas veces nos es imposible controlar las palabras que salen de nuestra boca. Lo que sale de tu boca es lo que eres tú. Si no honras tus palabras no te estas honrando a ti mismo; y si no te honras a ti mismo, no te amas. Honrar tus palabras es ser coherente con lo que piensas y con lo que haces. El ser auténtico, te hace respetable ante los demás y ante ti mismo
2. No te tomes nada personalmente Ni la peor OFENSA, ni el peor DESAIRE, ni la más grave herida. En la medida que alguien te quiere lastimar en esa medida ese alguien se lastima así mismo. Pero el problema es de él y no tuyo.
3. No hagas suposiciones No des nada por supuesto, si tienes una duda aclárala. Si sospechas, pregunta. Suponer te hace inventar historias increíbles que sólo envenenan tu alma y que no tienen fundamento.
4. Haz siempre lo máximo que puedas Si siempre haces lo mejor que puedas nunca podrás recriminarte ni arrepentirte de nada.
Everybody wants to have good friends, but do you really know how good friends are? And much more than that... Are you a good one? I took some minutes to think about "friends", then I concluded that for me the three most important characteristics in a good friend are: loyal, understanding, and giving. Why did I choose these three characteristics? It was because the word loyal include an entire form of life, an understanding person will try to be careful with the feelings or emotions of a friend, and a giving person will try to enjoy with others the good things of his own life.
By definition a loyal persons is someone who follows the rules of the honor, honesty, integrity and faithfulness. I like when people is loyal because that means that it is a coherent person between his words and his facts. Honesty means that you don't lie, and that you try to say alwasy the true. I don't want you to be confused between the word honesty and frankness. A frank person can hurt others with the true said by harsh words, but a honest person is candid, natural and simple with a modest way to tell you the truth. A good friend is honest with himself and the others. A good friend doesn't lie or beguile to his friends because he knows that the true is always the best. He knows that lies or even silence hurt the heart of the friends. A good friend won't tell you that you are right when it is evident that the reality is different. Friends understand the value of the faithfulness which means to rule out hypocrisy. Loyalty is a word that should be kept in the heart of all humans. A loyal person is faith with his own values and with the values of their friends. A loyal person is mindful and discreet about the things he knows shouldn't be told to the others.
Besides, an understanding persons is someone who is sympathetic and tolerant. Not all people have the same ideas and opinions, so tolerance is a value that make us understand that the richness is in the variety. A good friend understands that a difference in the opinions will not destroy a friendship. Nobody is perfect, so we need a good amount of tolerance if we want to have good friends. A simpathetic person is someone who cares about the lives of his friends, and someone who will try to help his friends if they are in problems. To be simpathetic imply to have empathy which is the virtue that make us sensitive to the emotions or problems of our friends.
Furthermore, a giving person is someone inclined to share. I am not talking about sharing material things, but I am talking about opinions, emotions, ideas, knowledge, time, own friends, et cetera. A person who is only worried about himself has not understood the value of frienship. A real friend try to involve you in the best amosphere he has been or lived. A stingy person doesn't even have a smile to share, so he won't be a good friend.
For a friend you will be one in a million, and nobody will replace you. Our hearts expands when we are with friends, and we become happier than ever because friendship is one of the best things of this world. Finally I will say that you should always offer at least the last three characteristics in your friendships, and don't worry if the others don't do the same. Think that someday we will die, and that you will wish had done the best in your friendships. Here, I remember a song that says: "You give a little love, and it all comes back to you." You don't know how or when but the love you give it will return to you somehow augmented.
"Time is very slow for those who wait very fast for those who are scared very long for those who lament very short for those who celebrate but for those who love time is eternal" William Shakespeare
Algunas personas me han pedido que suba algunas fotos de la ciudad en donde vivo. Así que me he tomado algunos sábados para andar sacando muchas fotos de San Luis Potosí. Se me hizo muy díficil escoger las mejores fotos porque en verdad tome muchísimas y casi todas me parecian buenas. Esta vez no voy a escribir algo sobre cada una de las fotos, esto a causa de falta de tiempo.
Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
Calzada de Guadalupe
Jardín Colón
Iglesia de San Agustín
Avenida Universidad y un pequeño puesto de periódicos
El imponente teatro Alameda
Alameda
Plaza del Carmen
Caja del Agua (muy característico símbolo de la ciudad)
Una calle del Barrio de San Miguelito
San Francisco de Asís
A un costado de la plaza de San Francisco se encuentra la plaza de Aranzazú
Esta fue desde hace muchos años mi toma favorita (Plaza de Aranzazú)
Plaza de Aranzazú
Fachada de Iglesia de San Francisco
Independencia o muerte (Plaza de San Francisco)
A lo lejos Catedral de la Ciudad de San Luis Potosí
Plaza de Armas
Kiosco (Plaza de armas)
Parte superior de monumento ubicado en la plaza San Juan de Dios.
Al lado de la iglesia de San Juan de Dios, se encuentra el museo "Federico Silva"
Los ferrocarriles
Calle Reforma y avenida Carranza (Plaza del milenio)
Avenida Eje Vial Vean los camiones amarillos de transporte público.
Due to the thousands of mails that I have received asking me for writing in English, I will do it. I am joking... to tell you the truth I haven’t received many mails asking me to write in English, it is just that I want to do it. I am not sure when I will return to write in Spanish again but maybe it will be soon. This time, I want to share with you one of the essays I wrote some months ago. Here, I want to thank Becky because she helped me to correct some mistakes I had in the first draft of this essay. If you have some comments to make betterments to the essay, please let me know. This essay is about Robotics, but it doesn’t present anything new about the topic. It is just a short essay with a very general idea about the subject. I have more essays to present you, but I am not sure about my grammar and vocabulary. Maybe some day I will post another essay, but I don’t promise anything.
ROBOTICS
By me (Rosalba)
Robotics is the term that is used to talk about robots. A robot is a machine able to execute specific activities. The definition made by Marco Ceccarelli, the author of Fundamentals of Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation, can clarify more the meaning of robot and robotics, "Robots can be considered as the most advanced automatic systems and robotics, as a technique and scientific discipline, can be considered as the evolution of automation with interdisciplinary integration with other technological fields" (M. Ceccarelly, 2004, p.1). The activities realized by the robot are memorized in its system which without the program or instructions couldn't make anything. The use of the robotics is growing so fast and by giant steps in different areas like working, playing, and exploring. The disadvantages that the robots have are few in comparison with all the advantages they bring us.
As I said before, the advantages that we can see in the robotics are in many areas. For example, the robots can do activities in dangerous environments, like work in nuclear zones, search for mines and defuse bombs. All these activities are being performed by robots, insuring the lives of a good number of humans who could easily die in these kinds of environments. In the area of games, we have robots that act like pets. In this way humans can play and have a fun time. Robots have done the missions to Mars because it's not possible for humans to live in the conditions of that planet. Nowadays, many studies have been conducted by experts, like sensing colors or sounds; in this way the robot that is working in an assembly line of autos can detect where the pieces are by color, and can pick them up and assemble them in the correct place with precision. Sometimes these kinds of jobs are very repetitive and boring for the humans, so they make mistakes, but the robot won't get tired or bored with the activities. The robots that are constructed these days are thinking. This is one of the most interesting areas of the engineering because the robots are starting to make decisions about some problems that can occur in the industry. This area is called artificial intelligence.
Despite of all the advantages, we have to take seriously one of the worst disadvantages that the humanity can face with the robots. This disadvantage is the loss employment for many people that are being replaced by the robots. Another of the disadvantages is that some people may think that robots can be real company, so they can be isolated from the real society. You cannot replace a human or a pet with a robot. In my opinion the first disadvantage mentioned can be solved with education for people in the field of robotics. In other words, robots will replace humans in some activities, but it will be necessary to have experts in Robotics to create more technology. The second disadvantage can be solved if we recognize the differences between robots and humans. In summary, the advantages of robotics are much more than the disadvantages. An article of the Tech Museum of Innovation predicts that the goal for the engineers is to make a robot able to do anything that you can imagine.
REFERENCE
Ceccarelli M. (2004). Robotics Fundamentals of mechanics of robotic manipulation (1st ed.). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publisher
Ahora me concedo la libertad de escribir un poco acerca de lo que es el TOEFL y unas cuantas cosas más. Primeramente veremos que es el TOEFL y los tipos de TOEFL. Después una vaga descripción de la estructura del TOEFL IBT que se esta poniendo mucho de moda por todas partes y finalmente algunos tips que probablemente les pudieran ayudar a los que quieren mejorar su inglés.
¿Qué es el TOEFL?
TOEFL es un examen que mide tus habilidades en el idioma inglés. TOEFL por sus siglas en inglés: Test of English as a Foreign Language.
¿Cuántos tipos de examen TOEFL existen?
1. TOEFL IBT (Internet Based Test)
Tiene secciones de lectura, audio, escritura y oral. Este exámen te ofrece la posibilidad de enviar tus puntuaciones a 4 instituciones o personas sin cargo adicional. Este examen esta aproximadamente en 155 dólares. Para hacer el exámen debes checar en esta página los lugares y fechas para presentar el exámen y todo el trámite es on line.
2. TOEFL PBT (Paper Based Test)
Este tipo de examen tiene secciones de lectura, estructura (grammar), audio y escritura. Su costo es de aproximadamente 150 dólares. Para hacer el exámen debes checar la misma página del link anterior y lo mismo la petición del examen es on line.
3. TOEFL CBT (Computer Based Test)
El TOEFL en computadora combina muchas de las mismas preguntas como el tradicional PBT. Consta de cuatro secciones: Audio, lectura, estructura (grammar) y escritura. Algunas fuentes como wikipedia mencionan que este examen es ya obsoleto desde noviembre de 2005 pero no lo se a ciencia cierta.
4. TOEFL IPT (Institutional Paper Test)
Este exámen es muy parecido al Paper Based Test porque consta de las mismas secciones (excepto escritura o redacción) con la única diferencia que es un exámen con una validez mucho más local, a comparación de la validez internacional que puede tener el PBT o el IBT. Este exámen tiene la ventaja de que no es tan costoso (aproximadamente 45 dólares), pero a su vez tiene la desventaja de que tus puntuaciones no pueden ser enviadas oficialmente a ninguna institución. Después de algunos días de haber presentado el exámen sólo te darán un papel con las puntuaciones obtenidas.
Cada exámen usa diferentes puntuaciones, aquí un comparativo entre PBT, CBT y IBT
TOEFL IBT
Este es el examen mayormente aceptado como prueba del dominio en el idioma inglés en muchas universidades en el extranjero. Este examen evalúa al individuo en las cuatro habilidades (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) por separado y de forma integrada (combinaciones entre dos o tres habilidades). El exámen esta dividido de la siguiente manera:
Reading
* 1st Part 20 minutes
1 Passage
* 2nd Part 40 minutes
2 Passages
* 3rd Part 20 minutes (sometimes it is not included this third part)
2 Passages
Listening
* 1st Part
1 Conversation 2-3 minutes
2 Lectures 4-5 minutes (each lecture)
* 2nd Part
1 Conversation 2-3 minutes
2 Lectures 4-5 minutes (each lecture)
* 3rd Part (sometimes it is not included this third part)
1 Conversation 2-3 minutes
2 Lectures 4-5 minutes (each lecture)
Speaking
* 1st Part -Two Independent tasks-
- A question to be answered
- A choice question
* 2nd Part -Two Integrated Tasks Reading/Listening/Speaking- (How the ideas are related)
- Campus Situation
- Academic Situation
* 3rd Part -Integrated Tasks Listening/Speaking- (Longer listening question that ask you to summarize key points on the passage)
- Campus Situation
- Academic Situation
Writing
* 1st Part -Integrated Task Reading/Listening/Writing-
Read a passage and listen 1-2 minutes a lecture
Write about 100-200 response about how the information in the two passage is related (20 minutes)
* 2nd Part -Independent Task-
Consist on an essay topic. The ideas on the essay are about your personal experience (30 minutes)
TIPS
ESCRIBIR EN INGLES
Es muy común para todos los que empiezan a escribir en inglés el querer aplicar las reglas del español para la escritura en inglés. Pero eso es algo que no es correcto y que se penaliza en exámenes como el TOEFL. Para aquellos que quieran aprender a escribir en inglés les paso la siguiente lista de conectores, la cual a mi me ha sido de mucha utilidad. Es recomendable que todos los días escriban en inglés para que practiquen y si no saben sobre que escribir. Chequen las siguientes páginas donde encontrarán que si tienen sobre que escribir y mucho.
"boysfan" is a memory aid to remember the connectors that follow this structure: __ , O __
b - but
o - or
y - yet
s - so
f - for
a - and
n – not
Examples:
My mother was doing a cake, but I could not help her.
I am going to do my homework at night, or I can do it right now.
My friends are very nice; however, they do not smile to all people.
VELOCIDAD EN LA LECTURA
Es muy importante tener velocidad en la lectura, por eso es necesario practicar. Si no tienes nada para leer en inglés, pues es una buena opción empezar con cualquiera de los siguientes periódicos en línea.
VOCABULARIO
¿Piensas que lo sabes todo? Probablemente sea cierto, pero porque no checas igual y te falta alguna palabra por aprender. También cuando lees el "The New York Times" puedes dar click en cualquier palabra y atomáticamente te da el significado, muy cómodo cierto?
YOU TUBE
You Tube al servicio de la comunidad que quiere aprender inglés. Para mi son los mejores canales y si saben de otros, pues pasen el dato.
Este es un ensayo acerca de la definición de inteligencia escrito por Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) y en verdad que me ha gustado tanto que se los comparto. Pero antes les cuento que Asimov nació en Russia pero fue un científico y escritor norte americano. Escribió sobre muchos temas desde científicos hasta no científicos. Era tanta su pasión por escribir que lo hacia de 7:30 de la mañana a 10 de la noche, además tenía una frase que decía "Escribir es mi único interés. Aun hablar es una interrupción."
What Is Intelligence, Anyway? by Isaac Asimov
When I was in the army, I received a kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn’t mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP as my highest duty.)
All my life I’ve been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I’m highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so, too. Actually, though, don’t such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests–people with intellectual bents similar to mine?
For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles–and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I’d prove myself a moron. And, I’d be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: “Doc, a deaf-and-dumb guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?”
Indulgently, I lifted my right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, “Why, you dumb jerk, he used his voice and asked for them.” Then he said smugly, “I’ve been trying that on all my customers today.” “Did you catch many?” I asked. “Quite a few,” he said, “but I knew for sure I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you’re so educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.” And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.
Y Para los que están aprendiendo inglés como yo, algunas definiciones en inglés y/o español de palabras que no me sabía la primera vez que lo leí este ensayo.
fuss over me: mimar (pay attention to) buck: dólar, zool. macho, ciervo KP: Duty is kitchen police or kitchen patrol staff assigned to US enlisted military personnel. KP can be either the work or the personnel assigned to perform such work bents: habilidades (skills) devise: concebir, idear moron: imbécil (stupid person) foist: to give (something unwanted or inferior) to (someone) deaf-and-dumb: sordo mudo nails: clavos counter: mostrador hammer: martillo whereupon: después de lo cual raucous: estridente smugly: ingreídamente quite a few: un buen número (a large number) had something: estaba en lo correcto (was right)
El mensaje contenido en este ensayo es excelente y totalmente concuerdo con él. No hay personas más inteligentes que otras, todas las personas tienen su propio potencial. Es sólo que esta sociedad nos ha hecho creer que los que van a la escuela y tienen buenas notas son los mas inteligentes, lo cual no es totalmente cierto o falso. ¿Pero qué sería de esas personas a las que llamamos "inteligentes" si tomaran un examen sobre algo diferente a su área de estudio? La moraleja que me deja este ensayo es que no hay alguna carrera u oficio mejor que otro, porque cada uno tiene su propia importancia. La primera vez que leí este ensayo también levante la mano derecha e hice la mímica de unas tijeras abriendo y cerrando o.O
Pues la verdad nada especial, es sólo que encontré una cita que me ha inspirado bastante y espero que los inspire tanto como a mí:
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people may act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes. Dr. Charles Swindell
