I got a guitar!!!

Last week when we were in Austin Texas we bought a guitar so in telling you about the guitar I am going to tell you some things about music and the music I like.
Here are some bands:
first I need to tell you I like all the bands for all the same reasons, they have rithym, they are rock and they have cool lyrics for their songs.
AC/DC (a bit tacky I know)
U2
Cold Play
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Snow Patrol
The Doors
James Blunt
Scorpions
Joan Jett and The Black Hearts
David Bowie
Guns and roses(some of their songs)
Jimi Hendrix
Lenny Krevitz
There are loads more, but these are the ones that come to mind(you probably think it is too long already).
My guitar is a Yamahah eg 112cc.
I really like it but when I get better I am going to get a Gibson or a Fender.
We got the guitar which is in mint condition from a guy in Austin for $75 usd, it also came with an amp.It is a black guitar with a white scratch pad.
While in Austin we checked out prices at a guitar store, and the owner was a guy who had been selling guitars all his life, but almost all the guitars he had were Fender strats, which are really good but I was looking for Gibsons.
Fender strats are the most famous and most used rock guitars of all times, Jimi Hendrix used a fender strat, green day do, Simple Plan do and many more bands do too.
Me and my friend Wyatt are going to start a band with some other kids called Matias who was born in USA and emilio who was born in Mexico City.
We don't have a name yet we are working on it though, We are going to have a competition, to win it you have to send us ideas for band names(only 3 ideas per person) the winner gets their blog put as a blog that I will recomend checking out to all my friends and will be listed in my favourites!!!
I have quite a few friends so don't worry.
Chow for now!

A day trip in Mexico!

Two Sundays ago we(my family and I) went on a day trip. Our destination was the town of the third biggest non- volcanic rock in the world(we were not going to climb it though).
On the way we intended to make a couple of short stops at two towns, one called Escolasticas.
This town is closest to where a special rock is mined, so there are lots of carvings and that is what my mum wanted to look at. The second town is called Vissaron, which is the marble town, so there were loads of marble statues and things carved out of marble there.
We arrived in Escolasticas after a lot of bad directions. We drove past all the canterra carving places as we were looking for some food because we were all hungry. We found a place selling two chickens for 60 pesos(US$6) so we bought some and found some tortillas(tor-tiy- as) and a nice shady place to sit and eat.
When we had eaten and we were leaving we stopped at all the carving places along the main road and found that all the cantera stuff was sooooo much cheaper than in SMA. Before we left I grabbed a couple of lumps of cantera to attempt to carve something.
When we finally left we drove to Vissaron with not much trouble at all. When we arrived, my Mum, Grandma and Sister looked in a marble store while Dad and I took the dogs for a walk. When we got back my Mum invited me in to chose a few things. We paid the lady but she had to go to her mums store to get change, so she invited us to her mums store to have a look while we waited. In the store we met a one armed girl called Andrea, who really liked both of our dogs, and said that she has one gold fish, one dog, and one hamster. We finished looking and left for Bernal. We arrived very hungry again so we went looking for some food, but only a store selling gorditas was open. So we went and had some gorditas(tortillas with savory fillings) and guess who was there- Andrea and her family. After we finished we went back to the car and headed home.
What did you do two Sundays ago?
Peace out!

What I learnded at Aikido the other day...

I am starting Aikido and I thought I would tell you guys a bit about it.

Aikido is a martial art that originated in Japan and was created by a man who was called by people who knew him, as O'Sensei (above).

I learnt that in Aikido they won't teach you any kicks or punches they only teach pins and throws.

It is also about using the other persons momentum to put them off balance and let them go where they want to go, you just have to get out of the way!

The gi(robe) in Aikido is a lot thicker than all other martial art robes because in Aikido they do so many throws.

The black belts wear a kind of skirt thing that simbolises a garment worn in Japan by the warriors, the skirts were dyed with indigo dye which is a natural antiseptic, so if you got cut then the dye would also stop the wound from getting infected.

That is what I learned from Aikido the other day.

Tianguis...(My mum made me do this)

The Tianguis is a market that happens every Tuesday (in San Miguel) and has just about every type of thing there is E.G electronics, food, antiques, clothing and tools.

If you're in the Tianguis you will definitely want to check out the junk stalls but you will have to get there before the antique dealers do!

After you have had a good look at the junk stalls, you might want to check out the clothes piles
Now I bet you're hungry so you might want to order a few tacos from a taco stall, if you are also thirsty, ask if they have a drink called horchata which is rice milk with cinnnamon with sugar, I highly recommend horchata if you need a refreshing drink.

If you're the sort of person that likes to go home and watch movies then go to a pirated movie stall and buy some dvds, but before you buy them always remember to ask them to show you it in english.

Or if you're a cook and you want some good fruit and vegetables, then buy a few bags of fruit from one of the many stalls.

I am certain that you will have a good time and will want to come back next Tuesday!
See you there!

RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Project part : 2

The RISD(Rhode Island School of Design)kids have been working their arms off and the house is finally coming out of the ground!
At this stage of building there is always a job to do whether it's brick laying, brick scraping(to make them flatter), filling buckets with mud, shovelling the things that go into the mud, manning the cement mixer or taking the bricks to the brick layers.

5 Days later...
The house is almost done they just have to finish the roof and the window sills.
There are still the same jobs that need doing and there are still plenty of jobs to do but I stick to scraping the bricks for the layers.
The RISD kids are really thankful for our help.
I will give you the next update soon.
Bye!!!

RiSD (Rhode Island School of Design) Project.

The Casita Linda Presentation was the first part of this post.

We went out to the site just after they had finished the foundations with the help of a digger. At first they thought they would be able to dig the foundations themselves but it turned out they needed to be very deep so they needed to get a digger to do it faster because the only had 3 weeks. The digger dug it then they made it more precise by lining string over the top then digging where the lines were and they had to finish it by hand. The next day they poured a concrete layer for the bricks to rest on, there was a lot of shouting, concrete mixing, pouring and checking if the concrete was level. On the third day they started brick laying and that day there was a lot of shoutng for bricks, for mud, cutting the bricks so they fit were they were needed, brick laying and checking if it is level. There was one other thing scraping bricks to make them flatter and easier to lay. Not bad for a bunch of architects! Hope you keep reading my blog! Bye!

Business report(my mum made me do this).

This is a business report for a trade show I went to.
We were there to look at options for new materials to make our bean chairs out of.

ANPIC is an international trade show for materials, parts of shoes, machines to create synthetic and to pattern leather.

It was held in Leon from the 14th of February to the 17th of February in Leon's event centre.
This Expo gave some up-and-coming companies a chance to try to find some long term clients and the well established ones, find some more clients.

There were many different stalls and materials to choose from, almost all at good prices.
The show had many different people from many different countries buying and selling their wares.

To get in you had to have a buyer status, a vendor status or an exhibitor status.
They had some very specialized stalls that sell only zips, etc.
The show is held every year at around the same time in Leon's event centre.
That's all for now.Bye!!!

haiku poem...

I have written a haiku poem that I thought you might like to hear.
In case you don't know what a haiku poem is I will explain.(if you already know what they are just skip this).
A haiku poem Is an ancient japanese type of poem that doesn't rhyme and has to have exactly 17 syllables, and 3 lines that consist of 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the second and 5 on the last.
Haiku poems usually convey feelings or poetically describe an event.
My Haiku poem is about pain this is it.

Pain...

Like a hammer hits.

Destructive, relentless and

pounding, powerful.

By: Me

If you want some good examples of Haiku poems go to http://members.shaw.ca/kcic1/haiku.html

Thats all for now!!!
Bye !

Casita Linda presentation.

Some post-graduate students from the most prestigious design school in the U.S.A are in SMA and have thought up a new design for a group called Casita Lindas'(beautiful little house)houses.
The original design of Casita Linda's houses use forms and rebar to make a shell then pour the concrete into the form, however these students have found a new way to make sustainable and cheap houses.
This process that the students think should replace the current one is adobe which is a form of making a house with bricks of dirt and water.
To put those bricks together they use...MUD!
This new process creates a load of benefits for all of us here is a list of them:
1.It doesn't polute like regular bricks, which are fired by burning anything.
2.To have a brick that can be made at their homes and is held together by a mud and lime mix.
3.They can be made really easily.
4.it doesn't need rebar(metal reinforcement).
5.Lastly it doesn't need transportation, removing more air polution.
I'll tell you more when I know more.
Bye!

The Codex Mendoza.

The Codex Mendoza is a 500 year old book created by Aztec scribes, it was created for the king of Spain from the viceroy of New Spain(Mexico)so the king could learn about this newly conquered territory of his.

When the scribes finished the book it was put on a boat to be sent to Spain, when the ship was launched it was attacked by French boats and the book was taken to the king of France's translater, some years later an english official bought the artifact.

When he died the book was given to his son.
Years after he received the book it was given to one of the University of Oxford's many libraries, where it is today.

The Codex Mendoza is a picture book considering that the Aztecs had no written language they communicated by the means of pictures.
So they were sending this book written in pictures to the king of Spain.
You're probably wondering how is the king supposed to read it?

Well before I go into detail about that I should tell you the three ways of reading pictures.

There are pictographs, ideographs and rebuses.
A pictograph is a picture that means exactly what is shown, an ideograph is the idea that the picture conveys and a and a rebus is like word play.

The Aztec books were usually fold out books but the Codex Mendoza was created like our books today and was also made on european paper.
The Codex was divided into three parts, the first part lists the chiefs and conquered towns, the second part was a tribute list of everything the conquered towns had to pay and the third part was a section detailling Aztec daily life such as punishments and the choices that had to be made by the children.

Going into detail about the punishments for all those mean parents out there.

The first is to spike them with spikes of plants, the second is to beat them with sticks and the third is to hold them over burning chilis'.
I don't want to give you too many ideas of how to torture your children so I'll stop there...
Bye!!

Fear(a poem).

Fear is a curfew from which you can't escape.
You live with fear as your enemy until you confront it, question it, talk to it.
When fear is a lion without claws or teeth, unable to attack, that is when you have mastered your fear.
By,
me.

Balloons...Giant balloons.

Today at six in the morning I got up and ready to go...help setup a hot air balloon and launch it with some good friends.

We met up with good friends called Robert and Evelyn and followed to they're proposed launching site.
The first step to setting up a hot air balloon is putting together the basket, you start by removing the basket from the trailer and attaching the bracings and burner(the burner is the engine).The second step is to roll out the balloon material and attach it with the ropes to the basket.
The third step is to have passengers and a trusted pilot.
When the crew where trying to work out who should go then the pilot(Robert) suggested Dad and me go up with him they agreed.
So Dad and me got to go up in a hot air balloon.
It was one of the most amazing things I have done in my life, it was weird seeing all these people from so much higher they looked smaller than toys at that height!
You are probably thinking I saw people like that when I flew on the plane to get here, no I have never seen people so small with so much clarity.
It is just so peaceful up there besides the barking dogs, I felt like I had escaped life and was floating over watching but unable to be seen, touched or heard.
Thats it for now bye!

D.F(mexico city)

Hi guys i am going to tell about a recent trip to Mexico City.

So the other day we went to Mexico City and stayed with Cecile and William in their huge apartment from thursday night to sunday afternoon,while there we went to the Zoo(a sad and amazing experience(I will go into detail later). We went to a very amazing antique market in the zona rosa and we went to a place called xochimilco which is old aztec canals created to supply the city with water and the canals are still there but people have made boat tours on these little raft things that have rooves. There are boats that are selling food and drinks that come beside to and tie their boat to yours(these boats are propeled by a guy with a pole). We had a 2 hour tour that cost 320 pesos(32 usd) around most of the canals. that pretty much concludes our trip to D.F.