Animal Farm

In this last weeks I`ve been creating another portfolio about this book and that`s why I haven`t been active around here ...
You can check it if you eanted just copy the link :D
http://animalfarmbookportfolio.blogspot.com/

My image

There is a part in this book which is when Snowball is giving a speech to his comrades about the construction of a windmill.

Well, Napoleon, has I understand was jealous of his creation and was worried about the increasing of popularity that Snowball had had in the last days, first with the tactic that gave them the victory against Mr Jones and now with this appealing project.

So given this facts he planned one attack against is rival and it consisted in realising the dogs he had raised against Snowball and make him go away.

And that his what this image symbolizes, if you think that the pig is Napoleon with book about the construction of the windmill giving the order to his dogs to attack Snowball that is in the barn among the other animals. 

My log

George Orwell first published “Animal Farm” in 1945. This book is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian revolution, and because of Russia being an allied of England in that time he had lots of difficulties publishing it.

This story takes place on a farm somewhere in England and because of Orwell`s inaccurate description of the farm we can`t know for sure where it was but it obviously doesn`t matter given the fact that Russian revolution was the thing that had to be criticized.

Chapter one

Mr Jones, the owner of “Manor Farm”, was often drunk, did not care about his animals, he didn`t feed them almost always.

One night Old Major – a very old pig but very respected in the farm – called all the animals togheter and gave them a speech where he first talked about why was giving it and then motivated them for a rebellion. For that he sang a song  “Beasts of England“ and gave examples of what was wrong in Manor Farm such as,  no animal is happy and is killed when it is not longer useful, man is the only creature that consumes without producing and yet he is the lord of all the animals. He claimed that, If the animals wanted to live a better life, they had to get rid of man.

Characters caracterization

Mr. Jones: Human, Farmer, married; Likes to drink
Mrs. Jones: Human, woman, wife of Mr. Jones; snores
Old Major: Male pig, 12 years old; Isn’t that fat anymore, majestic-looking, tushes never been cut, benevelopt, good talker wise
Blueball: Dog
Jessie: Dog
Pincher: Dog
Boxer: horse; Enormous beast, 18hands high, strong, white stripe on his face Stupid, steady, works hard
Clover: Horse, stout; Kind of fat; ‘Protector’ of smaller animals
Napoleon: Pig; large; Not much of a talker
Muriel: White goat
Benjamin: Donkey, oldest animal on the farm;Bad tempered, doesn’t talk too much, never laughs, friend of Boxer
Squealer: Pig; Round cheeks, twinkling eyes, shrill voice
Mollie: horse, Pretty, white mane; Wants attention, foolish, dumb
Snowball: Pig; Good talker
Moses: Raven, Mr. Jones pet; Clever talker

Chapter 2

It is in this chapter that revolution takes place and it starts because Mr Jones, again, “forgot” to feed the animals when he got home (drunk) from the bar. Unsatisfied, they came up with a plan to finish this injustice and made it happen.

After that, they renamed the farm to “Animal Farm” and soon two pigs almost were established has leaders, Napoleon and Snowball, because they created the seven commandments.

They were ….

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal

But the first awkward event ocurred almost after this rebellion, where the milk taken from the cows disapears  and Napoleon afirms that there is no problem, everything is ok.

Observation: When I read this part I noticed that something was wrong and Napoleon was behind it.

Chapter 3

·         Animals worked very hard in summer but they were satisfied because they were rewarded , all equals;

·         Boxer is a great worker , the best ;

·         Some pigs don`t work, just supervise the others but they consume milk and the products. In here we start seing violations of the commandments.

Observation: The pigs are smarter than the others, no doubt about it,  but they are starting to be like Mr Jones and that is against what Old Major said about all animals being equals.

Chapter 4

·         Snowball and Napoleon always disagree with each other ;

·         “The Battle of the Cowshed“ takes place, humans leaded by Mr Jones try to regain what is his for legal rights but animals win because of snowball`s tacticts;

·         Boxer is a hero;

·         Snowball cums up with the windmill plan

Observation: Napoleon starts do dilslike Snowball`s popularity. I think Napoleon is a bad pig and will do something against Snowball.

Chapter 5 

·         When giving a speech about the windmill, Snowball is brutly attacked by Napoleon`s adopted dogs and fell in a well;

·         Napoleon takes command of the farm;

Observation:we can see here similarities between Napoleon and Staline

Chapter 6

·         Napoleon makes the others believe that the windmill project was his but Snowball stole it from him and he had planned this attack for a long time, kick off the  liar

·         They built the windmill

·         Pigs started to live in Mr Jones house

·         Windmill was destroyed and Napoleon blamed Snowball

·         Pigs start trading with human

Observation:we can see that each chapter pigs become more humans and disrespecting the commandments.

Chapter 7

               

·         There was less food for the animals because of the trades with men;

·         3 hens ( because they didn`t wanted to give away more eggs) and 4 pigs( by saying that Sunday meetinggs should go on) were executed;

·         Change in commandments : “No animal shall kill other animal without cause“;

Observation: Quoting Max , and because I din`t knew about this fact and I`m now changing my observation, “ Napoleon is saying that everything bad is happening because of Snowball, this technique was already used by Hitler who said that all bad things happen because of the Jews.”

Chapter 8

• In this chapter takes place  “the Battle of the Windmill“ where human destroy the windmill and kills other animals but in the end they lost it because the dogs where there to save the “pigs day“;
• The pigs consider it as a victory, as for the others they don`t
• New commandment “ No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”

Observation : This failure can be compared to the Stalingrad battle

Chapter 9

• Napoleon says that Animal Fram is a republic and he is the president;
• Boxer is bad treated by Napoleon that instead of taking care of him because of his condition, he sold him;
• Pigs live in luxury, the others just starve;
• Napoleon educates 30 new pigs;

Observation: This youth pigs raised by Napoleon can be compared to hitler youth in were he formed his boys.

Chapter 10

• From the inicial animals in story a few are alive;
• There are two windmills in the farm;
• The bigs walk by their two leg;
• The commandments were now one “ All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”

Observation: the end of this story is similar to the beginning, that means  that the farm had human power controlling it.

Conclusion

I think this story is great, from the carachters to the plot itself. I always assumed that this book would end well, Napoleon dies, everyvody is happy, equals.

But no, an ending which was unpredictable made this story unique and realistic and I thank George Orwell for that.

My favourite character was Boxer because he was always there to help the others and to guarentee a good life not only for him but to the others too. 

End of the term

As you know we`re down to the last week of second term, and this was a huge one! I think we had never had such a gigantic term ( almost three and a half months! ) but it is finishing and it`s time to sum it up.
I think this was  the worst year start I have ever had in my life because my grandfather died. Me and him, we were very close and it`s so dificult not have him here by my side after all this years because we, when I was young, had done so many activities togheter such as going to the beach, to the café and so much more! He was definitly one of the most important persons that were and will be in my life...
But ( and this is difficult to say ) let`s quit the sad part and talk a little bit about my grades which would make him so proud of me .
In the first term I was kind of sloppy and didn`t make the effort I needed to be really good in school but in this one I decided to change it and improve and I think that in the subject english I did it very well! I was supportive for my colleagues that have a little bit more difficulties than me and I was glad for helping them. My participation in class is very good I think, and that`s what I really needed to improve in this subject but still I`m failing in some grammar points and I have to revise it in this two weeks vacation.
To conclude I only want to say that THERE`S ONLY A MONTH AND HALF LEFT FOR SUMMER VACATIONS AND I`M ANSIOUS FOR IT!! AHAHAHAH

HAVE A NICE VACATIONS !!

What`s wrong with the world ??

Have you heard of what happened in Japan ?! Disastrous !!
In 11 March 2011 there was an earthquake( 8.9 in Richter scale ) in Japan followed by a tsunami!
There were so may victims from this devastating natural disastre and I can`t image the possibility if it had happened here in Portugal :$
The JAPANESE people must be ... I can`t just imagine!! Oh my God how could this happen ??
Is this caused by us? I can`t figure it out what I know is that it may have changed earth`s rotation axis !!
What will happen to all of the persons victims from it?

Tuesday`s class

Next tuesday I`m going to do a presentation about TOP ( Termination of Preagnacy ). This was one of lots of topics the theacher gaved us to pick and I choosed it because even after it`s legalisation it is very discussed in our days.
Im`m in favour of it and I`ll explain it to the class giving arguments like "ruins young life`s having a baby"; " Costs of having a baby cvan`t be supported by young persons"; " when a person is rapped Shouldn`t she do an abortion?" and many, many others.
Mafalda will be against me but I`m sure I´ll win in this short demonstration of points of view ahahah.
Hope they like it and theacher too. See ya :D

What`s in this advert ?

Today ( 1/3/2011 ) I did a presentation about what was in an advert of my own choice.It could be an advert in a kind of a post card or a video advertising and I choosed the second one, which was about a german missunderstanding of words.
When I first saw this video I just burst into laught because it is so funny


I think that in the end I did it very good, with a good body language , good voice collocation and appealing to the crowd.
Hope to do another one like this !!

Debate

"Is school preparing young people for the future ?" This was the main question of one debate we did, where I was the moderator .

This was my introduction :
" As you know it takes years to us to finish school and another ones to complete university. But questions rise about school and if it prepares us for the future.
  For that we have in here some experts about the subject which are going to talk to us and show their points of view about it"

Overall I think it went very well, my colleagues were able to answer my questions which were very difficult ( obviously  :D )   and all the other persons who weren`t in the debate did enjoyed what we did.
José Pousada was actually one of the best of the ones who didn`t directly participated in the debate , and he had also a very good contribution to this presentation

A not so silly interview

Today ( 27/1/2011) we watched a sketch on youtube about a silly interview.
It had two characters, the interviewer and the interviewee and the first one didn`t actually interview the other, what he did was mocking the poor guy, inducing him, for example, to give wrong answers.
I enjoyed this sketch because John Cleese really annoyed the interviewee in a way that if it wasn`t a sketch but a real life situation I think I would punch him :$
Overall I think that the seventies comedy isn`t that different from the one of our days, which means it is very funny to watch :D

Back to school

Hey, to start  HAVE A GREAT YEAR full of love, all you want will come true I`m sure!!
As you can see I`m back and ready to 2011. A great year is coming but a difficult one to. I`ll do my best starting with this portfolio :D
I`ll keep you updated

Injured

It is been a while since I posted the last time, but here I am and with bad news. It is true, the inconvenient truth! I am injured. It all happened last week, when I was practicing at Benfica’s Volleyball team. And the worst about it is that it wasn’t a regular injury, I just tripped and I felt so stupid the more I thought about it.
After that I went to Hospital dos Lusíadas and after medic tests they said it was a common injury and I had to stop for 2 weeks and I stayed more uncofortable about it.
The important thing is that it wasn`t a more painfull injury that could seriously take me out of any sports activities for a lot of time!

First "test"

Today we`ve done our first long test and it went all pretty good I think. The direct speech wasn`t going well but somehow I managed to remembered it all and final result will be good. Friday I think we will do the listening activity and I think it will be about The City , but that is teacher`s call. Which me luck :D

Visiting old parts of Lisbon

This week we went to visit Baixa, Mouraria and Martim Moniz ( Lisbon old places ) in order to see how different and at the same time beautiful is the life in there.
What I really enjoyed in this trip was Baixa and it`s statue right in the middle but those other places where awesome too!
I think this was an amazing project that teacher prepared to us and I really hope to come back here someday just to see again and even more carefully the magnificence of Old Lisbon.

Ozone layer

In the last few classes I`ve been working in order to understand a little bit more about the ozone layer and it`s problems.
Ozone layer has the ask of ffiltering most of the sun`s biologically harmful probelms, UV radiation and it exists, most of it, in the stratosphere. It also varies with the altitude, temperature, weather and latitude.
We (men) are destroying it and it will be a serious problem to all mankind and someone as to do something about it!!!!

 

So far , so good!

We are half of the first term and it`s all going on very well at least at english. In other disciplines I`m not doing so well, but I`ll improve.

  

Wow my first presentation!!

So soon but it is now done.  Me and my group, we`ve done our first presentation and it went pretty well I think!
Hope to do more :D

 

Benfica`s Volleyball

This year I decided to go to Benfica to practice volleyball. I`m just in the beginning but I`ve been  able to realize that it`s hard in here but I`ll do my best and try be in the first team with Diogo Ferreira and João Cabral.
I`ll keep you updated :D

"Os Gémeos"

On September, 15 we went to CCB to visit an exposition called "Os Gémeos".
My first impression when I started to see that gigantic wall full of art was that the autors of the exposition were trying to express poorness because the kids in it were so thin and didn`t had some clothes.
In the end I really enjoyed this visit because it was a different away, to me, to see the same perspective. 
Hope to do another one!!


    

My expectations for this year...

This year I expect another BIG year, similar to the last one.
I will for sure try to help my colleagues by explaining them the subjects that I`ve learned but they for some reason just couldn`t.
I really hope that my portfolio can be a great one and for that I will work a lot to improve it comparing to the last one.

Can I do It???

YES I CAN! :D

Finally ... :D

After many, many tries i`ve finally done it!! I serious hope you all like it to!