Assignment 6: A photograph that I like

I had seen this picture few days ago and I really like it. I couldn't figure out who took it, but it appeared on "El Mercurio" website (http://www.emol.com/).

The photograph shows Alexis Sanchez and Marco Estrada (2 chilean football players) celebrating the chilean second goal against Bolivia. It was taken 1 week ago (June 10th).

Actually, Estrada scored but Sanchez appeared celebrating like the goal was scored by himself.

I liked the picture because it remains me the great match it was. I watched the match at home, and I had a really good time, since the goal sealed the chilean victory that night.

I also like the photograph because it shows natural movements of the body that most of the people do when they're happy.

Assignment 5: My favourite subject

One of my favourite subject this term is Social Theory III. The name of my teacher is Omar Aguilar. He is a very good teacher and he also teaches the same subject at the Alberto Hurtado’s University, which has a good reputation in the social sciences here in Chile.

It’s easy for me to study this subject because, as I see it, the
ideas that we discuss there are very helpfull to understand our contemporary society, which is our study’s object and that puts me in a enthusiastic way at the moment of discussion. That’s why I dedicate most of my time to read Social Theory III books instead of giving more time to other subjects.

Although this semester is not over yet, I’ve learnt some things. For example, at the moment of investigation, we should not only observ the social condicions that determine social phenomena like people’s taste or people’s political position, but also observ social condicions that determine our own way, as investigators, of study our reality.

Assignment 4: A career-related website

One website that I like is http://www.hipersociologia.org.ar. It contains articles about a course in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires that is called “Informatic and Social Relations”. The course and the website are maded by Argentinian sociologysts. I knew about this website by a Social History’s teacher assistant.

I visit it once a week, to read articles, when I have free time. Although I visit it periodically, i haven’t read all the articles, because most of the time I must study for my tests. I like it because the article’s themes are interesting to me, and it gives me the oportunity of learning about a subject we don’t have here in our Faculty, because my teachers have not realized about the importance of studying those fields, so it’s dificult to have a teacher that can teach those kind of subjects here in my Faculty.

Assignment 3: Utopia

In order to survive, humans live together and help each other. In this process of associating, they develop rules about the way they will behave with others. A good concept for conceiving this is "society". Now, everyone has an ideal of society with certain regulations that can guarantee that everyone will be happy. That is what we call an "utopia".

Some people think it's possible to achieve that state of utopia. I don't agree with them.

First of all, we live in a period conceived by historians, philosophers and social scientists as Modernity. That means we are always pushing for changes in almost every aspects of our lives. We can't stand the idea of living everyday without experimenting technological advances, new ways of communication and new ways of relationship. Most of the time this process is not conscious. So there's a contradiction between an ideal state of utopia, which is most conceived as a non-dynamic state of things (because of the supossed achievement of happiness), and the Modernity process we're in, where life's dynamics are the fundamental elements.

Also, we need to understand that the idea of society considers conflict. As a society, we have conflicts that involve our own ideals about certains ways of conducting it, in order to secure happiness to its members. We try to convince others about a better path to achieve total happiness. This struggle is constant in society's development, and allows better life conditions but asuming that not everyone is happy with the way we acomplish those advances.

In conclusion, living in utopia is impossible because utopia is a state of happiness where we don't need to make any effort to get satisfaction, so we don't act at all. It's a static state. And because our way of life implies dynamic forms of developing, we are always looking for that horizon without reaching it. Utopia is a good idea to keep in mind as long as we know that it helps us to determine a sense for our life but is imposibble to reach.

Assigment 2: My favorite piece of technology

I really love personal computers, more than any technological product. A personal computer (also known as P.C.) is a machine with a screen monitor that allows users to produce data (such as electronic writings and images) and save it, so you can look at that data every time you want.

The last computer I got was made by me. I bought every part of the P.C. and put together those parts. It sounds very easy to do and actually it's easy, but most of the people get confused at doing this kind of procedure.

I use it everyday for chatting on the Internet, reading electronic newspapers and doing most of my class homework. When I have plenty of free time, I watch DVD's also.

One thing I like about computers is that you don't have to argue with them, although sometimes I get mad with them because of slow functioning. Also a computer allows you to look at a lot of pictures and improve their quality. Finally, the computer allows me to be in touch with most of my friends and sometimes I have the opportunity of making new ones.

If computers didn't exist, maybe I would have problems to summarize my class' texts but I would really regret not talking to my friends more often.

Who am I?

Hi everybody!

My name is Andrés. I'm 24. I'm chilean, I was born in Maipu, Santiago. When I was 7, my family and I moved to Ñuñoa, and in 2004 we moved to Providencia. Although the place where I live now is safer, sometimes I miss the friends that I made in Maipu and Ñuñoa.

(Before you keep reading, I had to say I did this course before but I stopped attending because of excessive need of studying Social Theory 1 (i'm glad I aproved that course).

I study Sociology at Universidad de Chile. I like Social Theory class and Urban Sociology class but i absolutely hate Stadistics class. I live with my parents but maybe in 2 years, I will live alone because my parents want to live in a peaceful place at the South of Chile, they're tired of working everyday.

I like Rock music. When I was a teenager I listened a lot of Metal but now i'm listening rock music from the 60's and 70's (Beatles, Beach Boys, The Doors). I enjoy hanging out with my friends, drinking beer with them, watching football matches. I also spend a lot of time watching films, in fact, right now I'm seeing a lot of Al Pacino's movies (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Scent of a Woman, Scarface, etc.).

Last summer I went to a beautiful place called Punta de Choros. It's 2 hours driving from La Serena to the north. I really want to go again, I was fascinated going from there to Damas' Island and Choros' Island, watching dolphins, seawolfes and penguins (and also enjoying at the beach with my friends).

I'm writing this for my English class, right now i'm stuying in the Faculty of Arts.
Maybe in the next post I will tell you more about myself. Bye!


(i'm the one with 2 plastic glasses full of 'Terremoto', a very good drink)