Wednesday Morning Blog Club

Hi FAU Bloggers, Today I've like you to write about a "special" thing you own. It could be something you were given or something you found or bought. In my case, the thing I'm going to write about is a stone one of my sisters gave me about 40 years ago. It's a piece of stone called Tiger Stone and it's rumoured to have physical, emotional and spiritual benefits. My sister gave it to me in 1983 when I moved to London to try my hand at being a musician. Tiger Stone is meant to enhance your will power, increase your confidence, and to protect against negative energy. I don't know how long I carried it around for but it's been with for 6 years in London, 4 or 5 years in Spain 4 years at Uni and a bunch of years in Chile. I like this stone for a number of reasons. The stone is polished, so it's smooth and cool to the touch, and I guess it's this that causes a calming effect. It has really interesting markings due to the grain of the stone. I like th...

 Hi FAU Bloggers! Today I'd like you to write about a piece of technology. This could be a digital camera, a drone, a phone, a computer or a kitchen appliance like a mixer. In my case I'm going to write about a sampler I use to make music. The machine in question is an Akai MPC ONE. It's a sampler with a bit in sample library, lots of instrument plug-ins, and powerful effects. Actually, it's a little complicated to use and even though I've had it for about 2-years, I[m still in the learning phase. I've had other MPCs before but this has so many additions that it only really resembles the older MPCs in looks.The MPC has 4 banks of 16 pads that you can assign tracks to. You can also sample up to about 20 minutes of live sound and modify and reuse it "on the fly" (in real time). This "instrument" was designed in the 80's (I think) but really catch people's attention when hip-hop artists started using it creatively - not the way it was de...

  Hi FAU Bloggers. Today I'd like to talk about 2 photos. I guess the world was very different when I was younger. Not many people I knew had a camera. Photos were for special occasions. We'd have a school photo or photos when cousins came to stay or if we went on holiday. When I was a child, photographs were taken on reels of film that needed to be developed. It was usually a couple of weeks before you could see the photo, look after the event had happened. Nowadays, everything is instant:) This photo must be from the 1960's. I guess I must be about 7 or 8 years old but I can't be 100% sure. It's taken outside the house I grew up in from the age of 6 years old in Abbot's Nook, Chester. If I remember rightly, we were just playing in the street outside my house. My eldest sister, Terri, is in the background on the right hand side. I'm not sure who the other person is. Possibly a cousin. I think my eyes look like "anime eyes", sort of dark and upside...

  Today I´ve asked you to write about an ideal job on paper. Once you´ve finished that task, please answer the following mini-post: Write about a song you are listening to at the moment. Say: Who it´s by, What genre it is, When you heard it for the first time, Why you like it, Mention anything else you think is important or interesting. Try to write at least 100 words. Leave a comment on your teacher´s blog and on the blogs of 3 classmates.  The song I have been listening to recently is Little Foot Big Foot by Childish Gambino. It´s a R n´B infused rap song with an amazing video. I guess I like the production of the song and the amazing choreography in the video. I first heard it about 2 months ago. I like it because it´s a catchy tune with a fun video (a special kind of humour). I think there is a definite message behind all the Childish Gambino videos that try to show modern reality and how it can impact poor, especially black, people in America. I like most of the Chil...

This has been a busy semester for me so far. I usually teach 3 English courses and an a cross-curricular elective n Manga & Anime which I participate in with FAU Academic Diego Vallejos However, this semester, I started teaching a pilot of a new CFG FAU called English for Work Purposes. Also, for the last 12-months I've been the coordinator of Home Working (teletrabajo) in FAU.  The English for Work Purposes course has been very time consuming because I'm creating all the materials from scratch and trying to teach career-related content to students from the 4 careers in FAU. I enjoy doing this sort of thing but I think I'm going to get a teaching assistant or do some co-teaching next semester. The teletrabajo work was very busy in August and September but it's been a little quieter since fiestas patrias.  On a personal note, life in general has also been busy. It was my wife's birthday in September and her sister visited (she's from Santiago but she lives in...

I read ¨Millions in Florida told to leave their homes amid threat to life warning¨ It was written by Martin Belam and published as a main headline today. The main topic is Hurricane Milton and the possible damage it could cause. Basically, Florida residents in the predicted path of the hurricane have been told to leave their homes due to the chance of winds of up to 130 mph. The storm is currently grade 5 with winds of 160mph. The main news is that people are being told to leave their homes because this threatens to be one of the most devastating hurricanes in recent years, I think this topic is important because of how climate change is visibly affecting our lives and how it could impact our future.