Traveling: Vietnam

Vietnam... Probably one of the most beautiful places i have been. I was visiting the Ho Chi Min city which is the capital of the country. By the way the traffic is CRAZY... Believe it or not, even worse than Caracas. The streets are filled with motorbikes rather than cars. Whats the number killer of tourists in Vietnam? It's definitely Malaria, snake bites, or land minds right? Wrong. According to the US department the number 1 killer or tourists is traffic accidents, mostly crossing from the street.

First of all, the food is amazing. One of the things i ate was a rice paper wrap. It consists of carrots, shrimp lettuce, basil leaves, and other vegetables. It was delicious, and extreamly healthy! If only there was some in Venezuela... That would be pretty amazing.

There is also the commonly known Pho noodles which i personally think aren't THAT great. But my parents wouldn't stop obsessing about how tasty it is, so i thought i just put that out there. 

Second of all, the tourist attractions are very beautiful. An example is Halong Bay. Me and my family went on a boat and rowed through these tall beautiful mountains. It was so relaxing, and i have never went to such a place ever in my life that was as beautiful. We also visited this family that has a house on water... And i mean a house that is actually floating on water!  Crazy huh?

So next time when you're deciding where to go, i definitely recommend Vietnam.  I guarantee you, you'll have the TIME of your life!

Some trouble with school work...

  I have recently gotten my skyward account and the second i see my grades my mind is totally blown. One D, two Bs, and two A's. I think to myself, how was i possibly able to get such grades? I mean i got straight A's in my old school... I know i can do better that. My parents also have high expectations for me.
   Since it's still the first part of the quarter, i still have a chance to bring all my grades up.  So i decided to make a list of things i could do to raise my grade.

-Ask QUESTIONS to your teachers when you are in doubt of anything. It could bring that B to a A by just asking.
-Make sure you are in track of the work you need to do. The best way to do this is to write down all your work on a notebook (which i always forget to do cause i try to rely on my brain rather than writing it down. Not really a good idea...)
-Go to your teachers during breakfast break or lunch break to go over through things for tests and such. It REALLY helps!
-Speak out your mind during class. Teachers sometimes grades you depending on what ideas you contribute during class.(history...)
-Make sure you read the instructions of projects, tests, etc... Trust me it makes a difference!

While I am pretty sure there are millions of things you could do to raise your grade, this is pretty much all that comes to my mind now. Hopefully you'll also find this stuff useful, even though it's all the basic kind of things you need to do.

xoxo, justme

Book review: The Outliers

  
So the book "Outliers; the story of success" by Malcom Gladwell is basically the science behind the becoming successful. This is a  book that tells the story about how people become successful not because of a single reason, – but usually a combination of a large number of these.


So here are a few things that still linger in my head...


The 10,000 Hour Rule:
According to the book, you can become a master at anything as long as you practice it 10,000 hours. No body can be naturally good at something. People who are "gifted" usually had some kind of practice in the past which makes them very good at that specific thing.  He gives examples and studies to prove this idea. 
The examples include people such as Bill Gates, The Beatles, and many others, making it a very interesting book.


 It is not just the 10,000 hour rule that determines success. Luck is needed when it comes to great success. Gladwell examines when the programming geniuses were born. If Bill Gates was born 5 years later, it would have been too late for him to succeed with computer programing. Instead if Bill Gates was born 5 years earlier, he would have probably been busy with his family rather than computer programming.  


Being smart isn't always the way to success
Sometimes "practical" knowledge is better than book smarts, and Gladwell describes why.
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Sometimes the Gladwell's theory can be a bit hard to understand. Even so, every statement is backed by some kind of data and is very convincing. It has given me a different view of what becoming successful really is. This book is definitely something worth reading.

Movie review: Inception

Release date: July 16, 2010 (US)

Starring:Leonardo DiCaprio

               Ken Watanabe
               Joseph Gordon-Levitt
               Marion Cotillard
               Ellen Page
               Cillian Murphy
               Tom Hardy
               Dileep Rao
               Tom Berenger
               Michael Caine
Synopsis:
Dom Cobb, a skilled thief, is trained to steal important information from another person while they are in a dream state, when the mind is the most vulnerable. While Dom Cobb's ability to steal information does bring some advantages, it has mostly taken away many of the people he loved including his children and wife. He is then finally offered a job that could bring back everything he lost. The catch is that rather than steeling the idea, the opposite must be done, a idea must be planted to the person's mind. Dom Cobb and his team face various obstacles while trying to plant an idea in a person's mind.

Personal Review:

  The idea of being able to enter a person's dream makes the movie very interesting. I must also admit the special effects was something i haven't seen in other movies and is mind blowing, such as the scene where the city's shape changes, or the fighting scene when there is zero gravity. The actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio made the movie even deeper and more interesting. Because the movie is about a dream which is within a dream which is within a dream, things can get a bit confusing. Also you need to understand some of the back ground information of the characters to understand what is happening.

Overall:
I highly recommend this movie. If you haven't watched this movie yet, go grab a DVD of inception and hit the couch! It will definitely blow out your mind! 


I rate this movie 10 out of 10