Social Networks

Nowadays, people, mainly teenagers, use social networks for almost everything: to do homework, to buy things that aren’t available in their villages, to search for information about everything and for many more things. Actually, if the Internet wasn't available in our daily life it would be much harder to obtain what we wish or need.

We can download social networks in many “markets” like Google play or the app store. They are mainly known as apps. These apps could be free or paid, but the most apps are the free ones.

Some of the common apps in a teenager's mobile phone are:

INSTAGRAM: This app is mainly used to upload photos or videos with other people, mainly with your friends.

FACEBOOK: This one is one of the most used apps around the world. In this one you can upload photos, videos, gifs; and also you can interact with other people, write posts, tell the whole world your thoughts, etc.

TWITTER: Actually this app is like Facebook, but with a limitation in writing. You can only tell what you think in 140 characters and a maximum of 4 photos per tweet. This one is also one of the most used around the world, but with Facebook still being the first one.

PINTEREST: This app is less known by teenagers, but actually is one of my favorite social media apps. It consists of uploading photos that allows people to get inspiration from other ones and sharing more ideas. It has many categories like: art, DIY, science and nature, food, sports, etc.

 SNAPCHAT: This social media app is quite enjoyable. It allows uploading photos or videos with a limit of 10 seconds. These photos only last 24 hours, and you can also send them to your friends but no one could see them and will be deleted when they see them. It includes filters and some funny “faces”.

There are many more apps, very useful ones and also some of them very useless. The world is moved by social networks, it is a revolutionary movement that day by day is taking a giant step forward. Maybe in the near future we will be able to talk with our family or friends with our minds by just pushing a button. We will look forward to seeing that. 

I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading it!

Cars

We hear everyday about pollution on TV, they say that we have very old cars, they say that they pollute a lot, they say we are responsible for global warming, they say bla, bla....

Now, we can check how responsible we are. If we look at the technical data of our car, we will see that it is under a legislation of contamination, probably Euro 3, Euro 4 or Euro 5. These are all different legislation done by the EU, which is against pollution and which require manufacturers to include in their cars a lot of things that lessen polluting. EGR, DPF and catalyst are the best-known ones. They “help” to pollute “less”, that is right. But how do all these affect the pollution of the world and “global warming”. Just 0,0000000001% Why? Simple, because cars are the ones which represent the smallest part of pollution around the world. And just an example, did you know that a single flight between Madrid and Berlin pollutes more than all the cars in Europe in a whole year? Why do we have to suffer all the problems these filters cause? For example, when DPF gets old, we usually have to get it cleaned, by 3 months and the price is €200 each time... And if we need to replace it, we will need €1000 or maybe more!! But, maybe the problem is not our car… Still, we have to suffer for it.

OK, OK, you will say, but on TV they are saying all the time that we are the most responsible for global warming. It is said in the news, it is also said by the government... And what is the government offering now? The “PIVE”. It is an economic assistance to buy new cars that pollute less. That is good, we will get our new car cheaper, and we give them our old car... False!! What they want is that we buy new cars to improve the economy and that we buy and buy, because they also get taxes from us!!!

Apart from all that we have seen, we also see advertisements, advertisements which say that all these new cars pollute less than the ones we own now, advertisements which offer hybrid cars, with very few electric range. Electric cars, which requires a new electrical installation in your garage, still need fuel to work, because they just have a 50 km range, or maybe 100 km. This is OK if we are driving through the city, because with 50 km it is enough, therefore, we don't pollute. But, is this real?? No, it isn't. Although Spain is one of the nations with more renewable energies working, most of our electricity comes from non-renewable resources, and the most important here are nuclear and thermal power. Is nuclear power clean? The one whose waste doesn't disappear for thousands of years, the one that was used for atomic bombs, the one that can potentially kill animals, people, the one which can cause damage to normal people??? Or maybe thermal power? Most of it comes from natural gas and... Gas-oil!! But, is it the same gas-oil that we put into our cars? No, it isn't, it is the worst gas-oil, the cheapest, the one with more waste!! And apart from being the worst gas-oil, does it have DPF, EGR or catalyst? No, it doesn't!!!

I think that it is time to open our eyes!! I think that it is time to think about we think!! I think it is time to research!! I think we can make this world better, but all together!!

My inspiration

We are small, we are teenagers, we are over 15, 16 years and we love being inspired. Our inspiration comes from different places all over the world, but nowadays thanks to the Internet we don't need to move or to travel to go and check other customs, we can do it by the net.

Today I will tell you about one of my favourite online inspirations: Youtube.

This platform has been very 'in' these last few years, and it is great. Youtube provides a lot of information to thousands and thousands of people each day. It is very funny and interactive, and it is entertaining at the same time. That is why people love it. It is a great way to meet new people, to chat and argue a lot of times in the comments section, wherein a lot of times arguments can be found. Youtube is considered a job to a lot of people nowadays, being a 'vlogger' or 'youtuber' isn't that known but is being practised more and more.

Vlogging consists of carrying a camera with you everywhere and just recording what you do. Maybe it sounds stupid, but it is very funny and a good way of learning. Normally I watch videos of people who don't live in the same place as I do, that way I learn about other cities and about tourism without actually moving from my couch. Most of the important youtubers set themselves in LA, a city in which vlogging it is very common. A lot of important events take place there, such as Vidcon or Beautycon. If you like the idea of travelling and experiencing stuff without moving from your couch, check Youtube! 

I like this world and I enjoy it, what about you?

Best video games of 2015

2015 was a very good year for video games. A lot of new games were released, some of them stand out because they are very good and need a lot of hardware to work (Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront...). However, in 2015, indie (independent) video games had a lot of success. Games like Nuclear Throne or Downwell are games done by a very small group of people, and they have very simple graphics based on the typical 16-bit quality (like the first Super Mario).

Another genre that had good success in 2015 was the shooter. It consists on shooting and/or killing other players with weapons. It may seem simple, but it is very entertaining and can catch a lot of your hours. I think that happens because it makes you compete yourself in order to improve your skills in the game. Some examples of good shooter games in 2015 are Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Battlefield Hardline and Star Wars: Battlefront.

The third successful genre in video games for 2015, is the sandbox, that consists of an open world in which you can complete assignments or just mess around in the map doing all the things that the game lets you do (things like killing people, driving cars, buying clothes, etc...) the best games in this genre that were released in 2015 are Fallout 4 and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

All things considered, I am giving you the 5 best video games and DLC´s (downloadable content) released in 2015. I am not only including the games with better quality, more hardware requirements, etc... I am also including the ones that I think can take you more hours to complete, and the most entertaining ones.

5. Fallout 4

Well... What more can be said about this video game? It is probably the best game in its genre. It is a sandbox game but controlled in first person, set in an post-apocalliptical world. It has an incredibly long campaign (around 40 hours), a lot of people around to talk with, a lot of weapons, and a lot of emotional attachment to the principal character. This game, could easily be in the first place, but as it has high hardware requirements, in consoles it does not work as good, and it did not live up to the hype. And to play it in PC, you need at least NASA´s PC. It has been released in PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

4. Bloodborne

Do you remember Dark Souls 2? It was a role video game that has one of the best stories ever. So Bloodborne, a game based on the highly popular Dark Souls 2, can make you stand hours and hours next to your television, thinking only of improving your skills and trying to defeat all the bosses that the game has. It is an incredible game, made for a niche group of people (the ones that like very difficult role video games). The setting that it has, that way in which you control your character and you kill the different monsters that appear in the world, the way in which you improve your personal skills, and the ones that the game offers to you... It is incredible the way in which you can become addicted to this video game... It is just incredible. This game was only released for the PS4.

3. Nuclear Throne

This game is an indie video game, whose genre is rogue (the world generation is completely aleatory and changes when you start a new run), which is definitely my genre, the one that entertains me more. These video games normally have one or more hidden secrets, and this one is not the exception. The goal of this video game is to complete different dungeons in order to advance, killing enemies and mini-bosses that are in your way until you reach “The Throne”, the final boss. It is very difficult to advance, and you will find different weapons, morphs and mutations in order to make your trip easy. This game was only released in PC, but there is a planned release for the PS4.

2. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth

This is the only DLC that I have included in the list. This DLC is a complement of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, which for me is the best video game of all time. It is a rogue-like game with a lot of Easter eggs related to religion. You are Isaac, a little kid that feels guilty of the death of his sister, Maggy. His mother, obsessed with religion, heard a voice that said that his son was corrupted by sin, so she had to take off all his toys and clothes and enclose him. After doing that, another voice told her that it was not enough, so she had to sacrifice his son. As Isaac didn't want it, he got into a flap that was in his room. From there, the story develops and you have to kill your mother and the different nightmares and the elements that make you get scared. Then, you have to decide if you go to the Cathedral or to the Dark Room in order to complete the game and be among the “good”, or among the “mad”. In the game, there are more than 400 different objects, that can modify your synergy or build it, which will help you to advance and complete the runs. What you use to kill the monsters are your tears (you are crying because your mother is trying to kill you). This game has more than 130 playable hours (but it is so entertaining that you can continue playing more and more). Is difficult to explain this video game in just a few words, so I will write another post explaining the story of the game a little bit and the religious Easter eggs that it has.

1. Super Mario Maker

The combination of simplicity and originality makes this the most addictive game that has been released in a long of time. This amazing game, designed by Satoru Iwata (dead the last year), consists of playing in Super Mario levels that have been created previously by other players, not by the designers of the game. It is also possible to create your own levels, publish them to the rest of the players around the world and share them to your friends. The graphics of the game is the same as any of the 2D Super Marios that were released before New Super Mario Bros 2. The best thing about this game is that the levels are unlimited, because people will be creating them constantly and you can play them whenever you want. You can also search levels, filter them by their difficulty, size, name, graphics, etc... For designers, this game is perfect because the levels are made by other people, and there are a lot of very good games released; and for the players it is fantastic because they can play unlimited levels, filtering them as they want and they can also create them and play the levels of their friends. For me, this is the masterpiece for 2015's video games. It is only available on the Wii U (Super Mario made by Nintendo).

So this is my SUBJECTIVE list of the top video games of 2015, I hope you liked it. Bye!