Career-related website or An expert in your field

Hi, peeps, for today you can choose between two interesting topics: A website related to your career or an expert in your field. Obviously, I will give the sample language for both.

First, let's go with the career-related website I like.

The career-related website that I enjoy the most is Wikipedia (wikipedia.org). This website is an open encyclopedia that can be updated everyday by people from all over the world. The website has many sections and features being the most important one the ability to search in any given language any topic that you want. You just have to type a topic, pick a language and that's it. If wikipedia does not find your exact topic, it will provide other related topics.
I visit wikipedia weekly to look for information, decide disputes or just invest (waste for some people, but that depends on the point view) time.
I really like this site because inside each article, you find links to the articles of related topics, names of the people involved and you can click on them and continue learning. I have spent hours going from article to article only by clicking on the links, you can start reading about 9/11 conspiration theories and end up reading about the second law of thermodynamics. I also really like the fact that you have to give references for the claims you make in the articles because that gives wikipedia seriousness, for example. if an article does not have any references, wikipedia will post a notice stating that as a means to prevent people from believing in falsified or unreferenced articles

Now, let's go for the second topic.

One person that I really admire from Linguistics is Michael Tomasello. He is a North-American psychologist who studied his BA and PhD in the US and currently works in Germany. His main area of research is to establish the cognitive and cultural differences between humans and primates. In order to establish these differences, Tomasello has worked with different types of primates such as apes and bonobos, and he has studied how children acquired cultural norms to be active members of society. For example, he has established that primates share with humans some means to attract and direct the attention of others by using their hands and eyes. Also, great apes use gestures to communicate like we sometimes do.
When studying children's acquisition of cultural norms, he has focused on language acquisition. He posits the idea that language acquisition is a crucial aspect of the acquisition of cultural norms. On this topic, he has earned a very powerful enemy called Noam Chomsky. Tomasello goes against Chomsky's theory that children have an innate component in their brains to acquire language. Instead and based on his extensive research with primates and children, he posits the idea that children acquire language by learning social functions and using it, what people refer as socio-pragmatic or usage-based theory of language acquisition. Chomsky really hates Tomasello, and that feeling is mutual.
I really like Tomasello because he is quite emphatic when it comes to hating Chomsky and he is always finding new ways to disprove Chomsky's arguments.


If you go for the career-related website, you have to:

- provide the link
- describe the website (sections, features,etc)
- say how often you visit the site
- explain why you like the site.


If you go for the famous person in your field, you have to:
-Who she/he is. (short biography)
-What she/he has done. (examples of their work)
-Why you like her/him.
-Include his/her image

> About 170 words
>Add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ blogs

My favorite song

So this is a free post in which you will write about your favorite song. I'm quite sure you have dozens of favorite songs but you can only talk about one.

My favorite song is Across the Sea performed by the North American band Weezer. This song is featured on their second album named Pinkerton. When Pinkerton was released in 1996, The Rolling Stone magazine said that it was the worst album of the decade and that Weezer would regret releasing it. Lots of magazines gave the same review. In the early 2000s, The Rolling Stone magazine said that they made a huge mistake and that Pinkerton was among the best albums of all times, furthermore, it gave Pinkerton a score of 5 out of 5 and added it to The Rolling Stone Hall of Fame. Pinkerton is full of songs about unrequited love: a lesbian whom Cuomo (lead singer) wants to marry, a girl who doesn't want to go to a Green Day concert, and a Japanese fangirl that infatuates Cuomo with a letter. That last description  is the theme for Across the Sea.

Across the Sea is based on a real life event that ocurred to Cuomo. He enrolled in Harvard to study English language and literature (like me) and was having a rough time, feeling quite empty and sad. Until one day he received a letter from an 18-year old Japanese girl written in a funny English. In this letter, she asks him several everyday questions. Cuomo has stated that she fell in love with this girl immediately although he never met her. And the song is about that. The opening lines are about the questions the girl made, and then, the song is all about Cuomo's reaction and desires being the most important his depressing feeling of being away from her. The song is filled with powerful guitar chords and a feeling of despair that hits right in the soft spot.

When I listened this song for the first time around 2008, I fell completely in love with it. I was feeling quite empty at that time, and I felt even emptier after listening to this song because I had no one. Nonetheless, I felt  reassured that if that nerd Cuomo was able to survive, I could as well.

So, you have to write about your favorite song stating:
- Who performed it
- In which album it was released
- The topic of the song
- Any funny stories related to it
- Why you like it
- And a link to the song.

The minimun number of words is 170 and don't forget to comment on 3 of your classmates' blogs.

I photograph I like

Hi, guys and gals, today I will show a photograph that I really like.

This picture was taken by a stranger that was at the rooftop at that moment. On the background you can see the Parthenon and you can see me with two of the best people in the world, my wife-to-be, Nati, and our Japanese friend, Satoko. This picture was taken on Saturday, October 6th, 2013.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this picture because this is the last picture that we have with Satoko before she returned to Japan. Therefore, I get sad because we spent an awesome time with her. We travelled through almost 20 countries together. I am also happy because we were able to spend some quality time with her and she was an awesome travel buddy. We went from Spain, through all Western and Central Europe to end our trip in Athens. We ate lots of weird food and drank lots and lots of beer (they say that beer creates a protective coat in your stomach). From time to time Satoko would cook Japanese dishes which were awesome. Also, we (and by we I mean I) had to carry a 30kg piece of luggage all through Europe. By the end of the trip I was really strong. I wish she could have stayed longer with us.

I also like this picture because I was wearing a band-aid on my nose which made look pretty badass. And the story behind that is badass as well. We were in Istanbul, 4 days before this picture was taken, walking in a beautiful park and there was a strong wind. A huge branch fell from a tree and hit me directly on the nose and my forehead making me bleed a lot. Luckily, I didn't fall or cry from the hit. Then we had some awesome kebabs, another great day.

 So, the instructions for tbis week are:

Write about a photograph you like.

Say:

Who took it
What it shows
When it was taken
Why you like it
Upload it too

Include any other information you'd like to mention.
Write at least 150 words.

Add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ blogs