Google's Doodle review: 155th Aniversary of the Pony Express

Before anything else, don't think that I forgot about the second part of the entry "About the girl of the entry "A Letter"". I am still working on it and hopefully I will post it tomorrow part two, so if you want to know what happens, continue visiting my blog, and please share it. That being said, I may continue.
Today, April 14th, 2015, Google has posted a new Doodle. For those who don't know what a doodle is, a Doodle is a drawing made by Google that replaces the original Google's logo in order to commemorate an special date, for example in the US, there is a doodle on the fourth of July, in France there is a Doodle on my birthday La Bastille day, and there was once where it was commemorated the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who (you know who is Doctor Who, don't you?). Today was commemorated the 155th anniversary of the Pony Express. Now let me tell you a little bit of History...
According to Wikipedia (the world oracle), The Pony Express was a mail service, packages and stuff back and forth the East Coast to the West coast that started on 1860 (like a FedEx but in the 1860's). Like the name of the Service suggests, the deliverers used not ponies, but horses selected by the U.S. Army. It closed the Civil War started and the company was sold to Wells Fargo for $1.50 Million.
Well, The Pony Express is brought from the dead to the 2015 by this Doodle.It shows the word "Google" in a western style, then it shows a rider on a horse riding at the sunset, but Google's things are not that simple, because it has a button to play which you click and then it show the Pony Express's historic route from California to Georgia, then the doodle transforms in an interactive game in which your objective is to pick up the letters that are in the road (why would someone put a letter in the middle on the road?) and ride, but in the first level your enemies are cacti, then rocks, then avalanches, and thieves (it's the wild west). It is pretty entertaining and creative. Usually Google's doodles are just 2-D drawings (really cool by the way), but a few times, an interactive doodle is a Doodle for something. This game really brings to life the Pony Express, after more than a 100 years of closing, and I suggest you to play it if you want to have a good time and beat my score: 53/100 (I picked up 53 letters out of a hundred).

Hi-yo, Silver, Away!

Favorite Teacher

When I arrived to the US on 9th grade, one of the many things that I saw different from the Mexican Middle School from where I came from, was that instead the teacher would walk from room to room,the students now walk from teacher to teacher (Which now reflecting, it is a better and more efficient system).  It was incredible how much you can tell from one teacher’s personality based on his or her room or lesson,  for example, Mrs. Hudler has a very colorful personality to my opinion because in her classrooms the three most dominant colors ( blue, green, and white) somehow illuminates the room in some sort of pastel color, and the magic is that no matter if we read a gory story as Macbeth, or the gloomy Beowulf, the colorfulness of her classroom doesn’t go away, and I always imagine that her classroom is some sort of metaphorical carrusel, or -if you understand my idea better with this comparison- the inside of a hippie combie (but instead of smoke, it smells to cinnamon). But dear reader, this page is not about Mrs. Hudler (ha! Got you!); Yes, Mrs. Hudler has been my favorite teacher in my senior year, but when she assigned me this page during the Ragnarok, she said “This page is about your favorite teacher of all your four years of High School”, and since Mrs. Hudler is only my favorite teacher of senior year, she doesn’t fall in this category (but I do feel admiration and appreciation for Mrs. Hudler, in fact I will right now look to the starred night and look for a group of stars that form a woman with a book, and call her the “ Mrs. Hudler’s Constellation”, like Zeus did with Chiron, Perseus and greek heroes’ mentor). I am going to talk about a teacher whose classroom is not as “hippe” as Mrs. Hudler’s, or is not as goofy as Mr. Kohlhase, or was not as popular as Mr. Laney (Radiology teacher who was popular because he was supercool), but rather to a teacher who retired when I started my senior year, but while he worked in Med High he used to put us often 2- hour videos from the eighties, and to be honest, I would sometimes fell asleep in his class, in fact, once I fell asleep for 15 minutes!

Dear Reader, I suppose you wonder “Well Alejandro, If you used to fell asleep in his class, then how could you have the face to write in this space that he was your favorite teacher?” Well, let me explain…

I had Mr. Wertz on both Freshmen and Junior Year. I had him for Biology 3B and Environmental Science 3A (I still remember the class periods). And he wasn’t a pretty much exciting class, like I said before, he used to put us most of the time Two-hour videos from the eighties with primitive visual effects, but somehow the learning sticked to my head, it was like those kinds of hypnotic sessions where you go in and came out without remembering nothing, but in my subconscious I felt that I did learned something, and by next class period and for the exams I remembered everything. So Mr. Wertz made me learn easily, without putting any effort, which is something cool because you can use your resources in another thing.

He didn’t talk too much, and most of the time he looked sad, and when I was in Environmental Science he used to play the paper of “the prophet of the Judgement Day”, but he had a pretty interesting life, for example, he was attended to a college that was near a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and the plant had a nuclear meltdown (wikipedia “Three Mile Island accident”), then he taught in a South African elementary school during the Apartheid, he almost met Nelson Mandela, and he left that life of excitement in South Africa to come to the valley to teach High School kids. This example tells me that you don’t need to be loud to have an exciting life, but just to be focused.

Finally, during my freshmen year, I think he was one of the few people who believed the most in me. You see dear reader, he would help me with his class, and encouraged me to study, when I was discouraged by the other classes (but this only happened in my freshmen year, all the other years were different).

P.S. Have you noticed that there are not scratched out words in this entry?

Mr.Wertz

Aztec Mythology

So I started a new project, this new project is going to be a 120-minute long movie about Aztec gods (Cool, isn't it?). So in order to write my script coherently, I had to do my homework of researching  about Aztec Mythology. Unfortunately, the Spanish burned many codexes for considering from the devil, losing many pieces of information about the Aztec Empire and leaving plot-holes in the mythology, therefore I felt free to fill these gaps with my own imagination. Now dear reader, I am going to introduce you: The Aztec Pantheon! (just the major gods, because there are around 200 gods).

Quetzalcoatl

His name translated in Nahuatl (Aztec language) literally means “Feathered Serpent”. He was represented by a feathered serpent. Quetzalcoatl was the god of wisdom, life and wind (but in his wind form he is called Ehecatl). He created the world (for the fifth time, because like always happens, the gods realize that they did an awful job of creating the world and they reboot it. Examples are when Zeus flooded the world, Odin destroys Midgard and build it again, and Noah’s ark), by descending to the Underworld and tricking the god of death to give him the bones from the humans of the past, the god of death gives them to him and Quetzalcoatl creates everything again by making himself bleed over the bones from blood from his hands, arms, and penis (he didn’t cut it off, he just made a little scar from where the blood flow, but he is now fine, like you will see in the next myth). Also Quetzalcoatl is the god of life, so he didn’t die (although Aztec gods are not immortal).

Another myth says that Quetzalcoatl descended to the mythical city of Tollan in earth, became the king and taught the humans astrology, how to crop corn, medicine, and other goodies, And he saw that this was good, but Tezcatlipoca was jealous of him, so he tricked Quetzalcoatl by drunken him with pulque (alcoholic beverage made out of agave), and Quetzalcoatl fornicated drunk with his prioress,Quetzalpetlatl (See? His part did just fine despite what he had to do to create the world). Quetzalcoatl felt shame and left Tollan to travel east, but he promised the humans to return to make everybody gods.

Quetzalcoatl was white, so Montezuma believed that Hernán Cortés was Quetzalcoatl who had returned to them, and this so-called “Quetzalcoatl” also brought something to the Aztecs: not knowledge, but smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, measles, chicken pox, typhus, influenza, and the Inquisition(note: the mayans have their own version of Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcan, and when people think that Kukulcan and Quetzalcoatl are the same thing and that the Aztecs and the Mayans are the same people, this is the item #166 of the Rant List). Some historians believe that Quetzalcoatl is Odin from Norse mythology brought by the vikings because Odin is also the god of wisdom and poetry.

Tezcatlipoca

This god was considered bad to the Aztecs for being the god of night, sorcery, and discord, but they still worshipped him. He is Quetzalcoatl’s brother and used to hang out like super-friends (they even created the world together for the first time, and killed together Cipatli, a cocrodile that had a mouth in every joint) but something happened between them, and Tezcatlipoca became rival of Quetzalcoatl. Some historians say that in mythology, Tezcatlipoca was worshipped as the major deity in Tollan, and he asked for human sacrifices, but Quetzalcoatl came with his peace-and-love philosophy, and stopped the human sacrifices (Quetzalcoatl did not asked for human sacrifices in Aztec practices in real life), so he withdrew Tezcatlipoca from the temples. Tezcatlipoca became angry and to regain Tollan, he gave to Quetzalcoatl some booze. While Quetzalcoatl was represented by a feathered serpent, Tezcatlipoca was  represented by a Jaguar.

Huitzilopochtli

Other brother of Quetzalcoatl and major god of Tenochtitlan. He was born after his mother (Coatlicue) was walking around and found an strange sphere, Coatlicue put the ball in her womb, and became pregnant (by the way, Coatlicue was a virgin). Her sister and brothers got mad and tried to kill Coatlicue, but Huitzilopochtli, god of war, was born fully grown and ready to battle, and killed his aunt, beheaded her and kick her body to the sky to become the moon. Huitzilopochtli killed several of his uncles, and went behind the rest of them, the uncles ran away to the sky and become the stars, and were named Centzon Huitznahua. After kicking out the Centzon Huitznahua, Huitzilopochtli was worshipped as god of war. One day, he found some people in the Aztlan Valley and told them to walk west and found a city where an eagle eats a snake while standing over a cactus in the middle of a lake, the people of Aztlan went and founded Mexico City (and because the city is on a lake, it is slowly sinking, for real). Although this god was as bloodthirsty as Tezcatlipoca in his ceremonies, he is one of Quetzalcoatl’s best friends.

Tlaloc

Best friend of Quetzalcoatl, and god of water, hail, lightning, thunder, and water-related things. Had googly eyes and jaguar teeth. Priests used to eat babies to make rain, however, it was considered good among the Aztecs. If someone died by drowning or struck by a lightning, the person would go to the Tlalocan, Tlaloc’s Kingdom in the Upperworld that was a water paradise, and where Tlaloc makes rain, hail, snow, and all of that. One day, the mexican government found an statue of Tlaloc somewhere in Mexico, so they transported it to Mexico City, and started to rain a lot during the trip (and not those drizzles that people from the Rio Grande Valley call “rain". I mean thunders, and lightnings and stuff).

Xolotl

Quetzalcoatl’s ugly bother. Had human body and dog head. Because of his deformity, he lived in the Underworld helping the dead to find their way. God of deformities, but also could control lighting and fire. Was represented by a hairless dog (whose breed is the Xoloitzcuintle). Despite of his ugliness, Aztec worshipers liked him, but the gods sent him to work with Mictlantecuhtli in the Underworld. He only had one friend, Huehuecoyotl (Mictlantecuhtli was more like a boss).

Huehuecoyotl

His name literally means “very old coyote”. Only friend of Xolotl, and was the trickster god of mischief, music and partying (although he was the god of mischief, he is not evil, he is more like Dionysius). He has another very funny friend, named Xochipilli (huehuecoyotl did not had a coyote head, but had a coyote mask).

Xochipilli

Brother of the goddess of love. Like his sister he was the god of beauty, art, dance, flowers, male prostitution and homosexuality. He had several female and male lovers, according to some myths (although  homosexuals were protected by this god, the aztec law was very harsh with them. If the authorities would caught an homosexual, they would do horrible stuff to them, but the Mayans-who are NOT the aztecs-were cool to homosexuality). Also, he had a pointy stick and likes to poke it around, but if the tip touched your heart, you would fall in love.

Xochiquetzal

(A goddess!) Goddess of love, fertility, and female sexual power. Twin sister of Xochipilli. She would get married to several gods. Once she married Tlaloc, and they lived happily, but t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶y̶ ̶p̶o̶o̶p̶e̶r̶ Tezcatlipoca came and kidnapped Xochiquetzal and forced her to marry him (but then, she managed to divorce him).

Mictlantecuhtli

Uglier than Xolotl. He was represented by an skeleton because he was the god of death and Lord of the Underworld (aka. Mictlan). He was considered kind of evil because the Underworld was filled with traps, such mountains that moved, oceans of fire, etc. Like I said, he guarded the bones of the humans when Quetzalcoatl decided to reboot the world for the fifth time, but he was playing “finders-keepers” and he tried to trick Quetzalcoatl, but Quetzalcoatl tricked him back and he gave to Quetzalcoatl the bones, so he could spill his blood on them and remake the humans.

Coatlicue

Mother of most of the gods and goddesses. She was the “mother earth” goddess. Because she has fought many times, he lost her head and was replaced by two snakes. She was nice, but Coyolxauhqui, her sister, did not liked her, but Huitzilopochtli took care of her.

Itztlacoliuhqui

Punisher god of Justice and the morning star. He used to be cool, and warm, but one day Tonatiuh (the sun god) was asking for bloody and ridiculous sacrifices, so he decided to teach him a lesson on compassion and humility by throwing him an arrow to kill Tonatiuh, but missed and Tonatiuh grabbed it and threw it back, making Itztlacoliuhqui a god with a cold heart. He was considered the evilest god of all the pantheon that he didn’t even had a temple.

Tonatiuh

The sun god guardian of the fifth sun. He was a god that the divinity went to his head and Itztlacoliuhqui wanted him to put him in his place but turned to be the other way around. One of the Spanish Conquistadors, Pedro de Alvarado, was called Tonatiuh because some say that he was a redhead (And also turned out to be a barbaric soldier, who murdered various Aztec captains and soldiers unarmed in a religious celebration, known as The Massacre of the Toxalt, turning point in the Conquest of Mexico).

Centzon-Totochtin

Were divine bunnies that were FOUR HUNDRED DRUNKEN RABBITS (also called Spring Breakers), who were born from Mayahuel, goddess of Agave and alcohol, who also had FOUR HUNDRED breasts, so she could nurture the rabbits, and alcoholized milk would come out from her breasts. The rabbits travel around, but sometimes they meet together to party, and when that happens all of the rabbits get (more) drunk. These rabbits were the gods of drunkenness (duh!), and each rabbit represented  a different way in which a person can get drunk.

Popocatepetl

Not a god. He was a legendary mortal who was a warrior who was in love with the emperor’s daughter (Iztaccihuatl) who loved him back, but the emperor (aka. Huey Tlatoani) made a deal with Popocatepetl that if he wanted to marry Iztaccihuatl, he had to go to battle and return victorious. So Popocatepetl went to battle and promised to her to return, but a rival warrior who had a crush on Iztaccihuatl, came back before Popocatepetl and told her that Popocatepetl was killed in battle, and instead of marrying him (like he planned), she dies of broken heart. When Popocatepetl returns, he finds her dead and takes her to the mountains where he cries for her and makes her a honorable burial. Popocatepetl, while he was crying for her, he also dies of broken heart. This touched the hearts of the gods and turned the couple into volcanoes, so they could finally be together. The volcanoes are real and surround Mexico city, the volcano Iztaccihuatl is extinct, but Popocatepetl is still active and very frequently exhales smoke and (or) ash, sometimes the exhalations can be very dangerous to the communities around. Lately, Popocatepetl has been upset, and he throws ash, smoke, and other stuff, sometimes threatens to throw lava and giant rocks, and some people (spiritists) speculate that is because The Mighty Popocatepetl, guardian of Mexico, is pissed off at what are the presidents doing with Mexico, and with all the corruption, drug trafficking, etc (You know, what has been on the news).

Note: When Mexico’s roads were safe, I came to these volcanoes to visit them with my family. We walked around the park, but then we decided to hitchhike the Iztaccíhuatl (Popocatépetl was kind of unsafe, because that day I think some smoke was coming out, and there was wind, and you know, those radioactive gases (Radon-222 and its friends) that come from volcanoes do not give you superpowers, but kill you). We climbed half of the Iztaccihuatl before finding our way back to our car due to the cold weather it was getting as we went up.

Why Captain America is awesome...

Captain America is a superhero who dresses with bars and stars and carries a shield that is decorated the same way, and also my favourite superhero. Capatain America’’s started as a young man from brooklyn named Steve Rogers who was an idealist and wants to fight for liberty and the American Way during WWII, therefore Rogers wants to join to the army but is always rejected because he is too physically weak until one day, he is ofered to take part on a project to create a super-soldier, where he gets his powers.

Because of Roger’s story and for what he stands for in the comics, Captain America is my favourite superhero. First, besides the fact that Captain America wears the american flag, Captain America is not a patriotic xenophibic like many conservatives that call themselves as “patriotic”. This is because Captain America was a superhero made to fight the nazis during WWII and it would be incoungrent that someone that fights fascism is a xenophobic. Another reason why Captain America is awesome is that he is a realistic superhero, y knows that Superman is an alien, Batman a magnate that builds his own weapons` and Wonder Woman a greek Amazon, but these characters does not represent a realistic origin, a real magnate would not spends his millions in only building weapons instead investing in his own corporation, or when would someone find a greek amazon in real life; Captain America, on the other hand, starts a a weak normal person who would get picked on and bullied but then he meets strenght and uses that strenght to defend the weak people against the strong bully, becoming “the sentinel of liberty”.

Hero

On March 21st of 1806, in the South of Mexico; Benito Juarez, one  of my many heroes was born.  Benito Juarez was the youngest of his siblings, son of indian (native from the Americas) farmers, who died three years after he was born, then he was sent to live with his grandparents, who died a couple of years after the arrival of Juarez and then was sent to live with his uncle who was a sheperd. One day, Juarez lost accidentally a sheep and runs away scared to the city, where he works as a peasant, in a printer, etc. Later on, a priests finds him and encourages him to get an education by going to the seminary, Juarez goes to the seminary but drops because he didn’t want to be really a priest, but a lawyer. So Benito Juarez atend law school and after years of study he becomes a successful lawyer. But Juarez doesn’t stop here and after some years, Juarez becomes Governor of Chiapas. Juarez had liberal ideals on that time that conflicted with the former Mexican President Santa Anna’s interests, therefore Santa Anna exiles him to New Orleans. When Santa Anna is overthrown, Juarez goes back to Mexico and becomes a judge in the Mexican Supreme Court and eventually becomes President of Mexico.

But when he becomes President, a conservative rebellion starts against the liberal government and leads to a civil war that lasted three years in which Juarez won, but left the country in almost in bankrupt, so Juarez decides to suspend the payments of the foreign debt to France, Spain and the UK. France decided to invade Mexico, but Juarez repels the invasion and successfully defends the country against the french.

For me, Juarez is my hero because he started from very humble origins and then he become great, but also when he became powerful he didn’t let the political power to go to his head and didn’t become a tyrant, he knew the value of strenght and not only became a heroic president but also a good man.