Sunday, 31 December 2017
Why Your 2018 Resolutions Are Going to Fail (And Hopefully Mine Won't)
Tonight is New Year's eve, December 31st. Which means tonight a lot of people are going to think about a handful of resolutions and when the clock finally hits midnight and we're suddenly in January 1st of the new year they mean to become a completely renewed person with all their resolutions. Let's be real now, though. By January 15th most of us have forgotten half of our resolutions already and by January 30th we've given up on most of them. All in all, you have 364 days in the year, sometimes even 365. It seems rather silly to me that you have to wait for a specific day to change your life. If you would really want to do it, you can do it on the other 363 days of the year.
Sometimes, though, I understand you need a specific date as a reason to start something new or give yourself a fresh start so the beginning of a new year is usually the most chosen date to do it and that makes sense. I am guilty of this too, to be honest. New year, new me, am I right? (Or, at least, improved me)
So last week I was listening to The Savvy Psychologist podcast, which I totally recommend you listen to, and she was talking about why most people's resolutions suck. There's four main reasons why that happens: they're either too vague, they try to take on a new habit, it sucks or you put it all in and then give up.
Let's break it down, shall we?
Most resolutions are too vague so you need to get specific with this. It's not enough to say "eat healthier" or "exercise more often", you have to set a goal like "working out twice a week" or "cooking vegan three times a week". Like she said, quantification is often the key to specificity and it's only that way you'll be able to track yourself down and know how to check it off.
A resolution about fitting in a new activity is often very dificult and doomed from the beginning because changing your habits is in itself very hard, as we always manage to find excuses to maintain our daily routine and not include this new resolution after a while. The trick here is to make it automatic, as an habit change works better if you link it with an already existent one.
When your resolution sucks, it's a total effort to you and you're forcing yourself to keep it going it's because people need more than sheer force of will to sustain a lasting change. Behaviors persist because they’re reinforced and you need to get something out of your resolution, some kind of reward, even if it's a nicer body. So make sure you're getting something out of it by tracking your progress and seeing how much you've accomplished and how far you've come. On the other hand, you can come up with an immediate reward, something that will make you feel good, and this involves pairing a “should,” like a resolution, with a “want” as a reward after you've done the "should".
Sometimes you go all in for awhile, but then your willpower (and your interest) fades and somehow life gets in the way and oops, there goes your resolution. So go easy on yourself and don't make breaking the chain of daily streaks a tragedy. Just pick it up and restart it again. After all, success isn’t achieved by maintaining a new habit perfectly but by minimizing the downtime between inevitable setbacks and you'll eventually get there with all its ups and downs.
Conclusion: for this thing to actually work out we need to be specific, automate it, get something out of it like a reward and not to be afraid to restart it again. With this said, and hoping I don't reach January 15th forgetting these (hopefully this post will hold me accountable, please ask me how I'm doing it once in a while), I decided to compile my own list of 2018 resolutions, where I tried not to be too ambitious:
1) Exercise 6 times a week, 28 minutes per day. I have already scheduled my workout plan for the next 6 months, so that should help me with this one.
2) Lose at least 5kg.
3) Keep up a daily streak on my German Duolingo.
4) While at it, finish my German Duolingo.
5) Travel to and visit (at least) 3 different countries this year.
6) Read at least 20 books.
7) Cook at home once a week.
So what about you? What are your 2018 resolutions? Do you think you'll be able to hold on to them?
Sometimes, though, I understand you need a specific date as a reason to start something new or give yourself a fresh start so the beginning of a new year is usually the most chosen date to do it and that makes sense. I am guilty of this too, to be honest. New year, new me, am I right? (Or, at least, improved me)
So last week I was listening to The Savvy Psychologist podcast, which I totally recommend you listen to, and she was talking about why most people's resolutions suck. There's four main reasons why that happens: they're either too vague, they try to take on a new habit, it sucks or you put it all in and then give up.
Let's break it down, shall we?
Most resolutions are too vague so you need to get specific with this. It's not enough to say "eat healthier" or "exercise more often", you have to set a goal like "working out twice a week" or "cooking vegan three times a week". Like she said, quantification is often the key to specificity and it's only that way you'll be able to track yourself down and know how to check it off.
A resolution about fitting in a new activity is often very dificult and doomed from the beginning because changing your habits is in itself very hard, as we always manage to find excuses to maintain our daily routine and not include this new resolution after a while. The trick here is to make it automatic, as an habit change works better if you link it with an already existent one.
When your resolution sucks, it's a total effort to you and you're forcing yourself to keep it going it's because people need more than sheer force of will to sustain a lasting change. Behaviors persist because they’re reinforced and you need to get something out of your resolution, some kind of reward, even if it's a nicer body. So make sure you're getting something out of it by tracking your progress and seeing how much you've accomplished and how far you've come. On the other hand, you can come up with an immediate reward, something that will make you feel good, and this involves pairing a “should,” like a resolution, with a “want” as a reward after you've done the "should".
Sometimes you go all in for awhile, but then your willpower (and your interest) fades and somehow life gets in the way and oops, there goes your resolution. So go easy on yourself and don't make breaking the chain of daily streaks a tragedy. Just pick it up and restart it again. After all, success isn’t achieved by maintaining a new habit perfectly but by minimizing the downtime between inevitable setbacks and you'll eventually get there with all its ups and downs.
Conclusion: for this thing to actually work out we need to be specific, automate it, get something out of it like a reward and not to be afraid to restart it again. With this said, and hoping I don't reach January 15th forgetting these (hopefully this post will hold me accountable, please ask me how I'm doing it once in a while), I decided to compile my own list of 2018 resolutions, where I tried not to be too ambitious:
1) Exercise 6 times a week, 28 minutes per day. I have already scheduled my workout plan for the next 6 months, so that should help me with this one.
2) Lose at least 5kg.
3) Keep up a daily streak on my German Duolingo.
4) While at it, finish my German Duolingo.
5) Travel to and visit (at least) 3 different countries this year.
6) Read at least 20 books.
7) Cook at home once a week.
So what about you? What are your 2018 resolutions? Do you think you'll be able to hold on to them?
Sunday, 24 December 2017
The Dark Side of Christmas
Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas. I like that this is an excuse to gather the whole family around and a reason to get fancy (or not) new stuff or sometimes only the money to buy said fancy new stuff. I'm crazy about all kinds of the advent calendars, I love putting up the Christmas tree and I like giving people meaningful gifts that I'm sure they will enjoy and watching their faces when they unwrap them. But, despite this being a really festive and happy season there's always a couple of things that annoy me during this season:
It's November 1st, Dammit!
After Halloween, which I'm pretty sure the shops adopted solely to be able to sell more candy and stupid costumes (apparently Carnival is not enough for them), they immediately switch to Christmas lights, Santas and Merry Christmases signs. I'm positive they do it earlier and earlier every time. Give consumerism a break, people!
Songs
Thankfully this year I was able to escape the Christmas songs on the radio for quite a while and only been catching them this last week, which is understandable. However, they are always the same ones. We already know that the only thing Mariah Carey wants for Christmas is you. I was slightly doubtful about that so I'm typing this as I listen to Mariah Carey. After all, I'm no Grinch.
Tv Scheduling
Talking about the Grinch, here's a classic Christmas movie, along with The Sound of Music and Home Alone. Now I got to be honest about this one. I will always sit down and watch these last two. Always. And I would be upset if the tv didn't put them on their schedule during Christmas. I checked and this year they've also included Frozen and Home so I'm all set for Christmas Day. What makes my body itch is when the tv channels make boring choices such as a Stars Gala or keep their normal schedule with typical afternoon programs aimed towards people above the age of sixty, forgetting it's not a normal day and that although the population is indeed aging, the rest of the demography still does not appreciate 5 hours of programs where every ten minutes they remind you to call a certain telephone number (looking at you, TVI).
Company Dinner
Now if you're not working yet or you're lucky enough to work for yourself you may not relate to this one. But the companies always do these Christmas Team Dinners the employees should attend to. I honestly don't have a bad experience with these (I've only been to two so far, so I may be getting ahead of myself) but there's always some worrisome issues: what you should wear (is it more formal or more laid back?), what you should eat (should you restrain yourself or is it okay to eat as much as you feel like?) and then there's the whole awkward moments of seeing your colleagues outside the work environment and how you should behave. But perhaps I'm the only one who gets anxiety by these gatherings beforehand but they usually end up being fine. It's just a whole process I'd rather not go into.
Gifts
As I previously said, I do like giving out gifts. However, there are always those people you have no idea what to get them and will break your head until you finally come across something. On the other hand, when you're the problematic person to get gifts because you actually don't want anything you feel bad because you have no idea what to answer when people ask you what you want - this year all I asked for was socks and slippers and I'm pretty sure that, unfortunately, no one is going to give me that (I'll keep you updated about this issue).
People
People everywhere. Everywhere you go there's people buying stuff, trying to sell you stuff, there's people EVERYWHERE. The parking lots are always so full one loses all their motivation upon entering the shopping mall and losing so much time searching for a parking spot.
What about you? Do you love Christmas and are looking forward to it? Or do you hate it? What gets under your skin during this special time of the year?
It's November 1st, Dammit!
After Halloween, which I'm pretty sure the shops adopted solely to be able to sell more candy and stupid costumes (apparently Carnival is not enough for them), they immediately switch to Christmas lights, Santas and Merry Christmases signs. I'm positive they do it earlier and earlier every time. Give consumerism a break, people!
Songs
Thankfully this year I was able to escape the Christmas songs on the radio for quite a while and only been catching them this last week, which is understandable. However, they are always the same ones. We already know that the only thing Mariah Carey wants for Christmas is you. I was slightly doubtful about that so I'm typing this as I listen to Mariah Carey. After all, I'm no Grinch.
Tv Scheduling
Talking about the Grinch, here's a classic Christmas movie, along with The Sound of Music and Home Alone. Now I got to be honest about this one. I will always sit down and watch these last two. Always. And I would be upset if the tv didn't put them on their schedule during Christmas. I checked and this year they've also included Frozen and Home so I'm all set for Christmas Day. What makes my body itch is when the tv channels make boring choices such as a Stars Gala or keep their normal schedule with typical afternoon programs aimed towards people above the age of sixty, forgetting it's not a normal day and that although the population is indeed aging, the rest of the demography still does not appreciate 5 hours of programs where every ten minutes they remind you to call a certain telephone number (looking at you, TVI).
Company Dinner
Now if you're not working yet or you're lucky enough to work for yourself you may not relate to this one. But the companies always do these Christmas Team Dinners the employees should attend to. I honestly don't have a bad experience with these (I've only been to two so far, so I may be getting ahead of myself) but there's always some worrisome issues: what you should wear (is it more formal or more laid back?), what you should eat (should you restrain yourself or is it okay to eat as much as you feel like?) and then there's the whole awkward moments of seeing your colleagues outside the work environment and how you should behave. But perhaps I'm the only one who gets anxiety by these gatherings beforehand but they usually end up being fine. It's just a whole process I'd rather not go into.
Gifts
As I previously said, I do like giving out gifts. However, there are always those people you have no idea what to get them and will break your head until you finally come across something. On the other hand, when you're the problematic person to get gifts because you actually don't want anything you feel bad because you have no idea what to answer when people ask you what you want - this year all I asked for was socks and slippers and I'm pretty sure that, unfortunately, no one is going to give me that (I'll keep you updated about this issue).
People
People everywhere. Everywhere you go there's people buying stuff, trying to sell you stuff, there's people EVERYWHERE. The parking lots are always so full one loses all their motivation upon entering the shopping mall and losing so much time searching for a parking spot.
What about you? Do you love Christmas and are looking forward to it? Or do you hate it? What gets under your skin during this special time of the year?
Sunday, 17 December 2017
Book review: La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1) by Philip Pullman
Twenty-two years after publishing the ground-breaking His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman returns to his amazing parallel world in a masterful new novel: La Belle Sauvage, the long-awaited volume one of The Book of Dust. This first volume is a prequel of His Dark Materials, set ten years before Northern Lights, while the next volume will be set twenty years after the events of La Belle Sauvage, and ten years after the events of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
My copy of Northern Lights is from 2002, a portuguese second edition (!), so I must have been around 10 or maybe slightly older when I started the series. I was thrilled when I found out the author of one of my favourite series as a teen was finally going to release a new series of books set in the same universe! The long wait was finally over! I have a friend who is as much obsessed as I am and I sent him the same book edition I got over the Atlantic Ocean so we could read it together and let me tell you: despite the package having arrived in less than perfect conditions (we still don't know which country's post office we should blame) the book was perfect. Let me tell you: being able to read something at the same time as someone else and discussing as you go is amazing!
Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at a pub called Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them: a baby called Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pan (who shifts into every adorable baby animal he knows). Malcolm's life in the pub beside the river is safe and happy enough, if uneventful. But during a winter of unceasing rain the forces of science, religion and politics begin to clash, and as the weather rises to a pitch of ferocity, all Malcolm's certainties are torn assunder. Finding himself linked to the baby Lyra, he is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change both of them forever.
The book is fast paced. A lot. I mean, it takes a while to get to the main issue: it climbs slowly at first and then all at once and then you won't be able to put it down! Philip Pullman manages to take us to his world again, capturing the feeling of His Dark Materials as it was like no time between the two series has passed. We get to see old characters of that series, fall in love with new ones and burn with hatred towards the villan! I'm sure this book stands on its own if you've never read His Dark Materials (why wouldn't you, though?) but I believe you'd be able to get more out of it if you'd read it first because there are few returning characters you'll like to see. You can also choose to do the other way around, that is, read La Belle Sauvage first and then embark on the amazing His Dark Materials journey (and then cry because The Secret Commonwealth still has no release date).
So please do yourself a favour a read La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman and get it on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon and the let me know which animal do you think your dæmon is!
My copy of Northern Lights is from 2002, a portuguese second edition (!), so I must have been around 10 or maybe slightly older when I started the series. I was thrilled when I found out the author of one of my favourite series as a teen was finally going to release a new series of books set in the same universe! The long wait was finally over! I have a friend who is as much obsessed as I am and I sent him the same book edition I got over the Atlantic Ocean so we could read it together and let me tell you: despite the package having arrived in less than perfect conditions (we still don't know which country's post office we should blame) the book was perfect. Let me tell you: being able to read something at the same time as someone else and discussing as you go is amazing!
Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at a pub called Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them: a baby called Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon Pan (who shifts into every adorable baby animal he knows). Malcolm's life in the pub beside the river is safe and happy enough, if uneventful. But during a winter of unceasing rain the forces of science, religion and politics begin to clash, and as the weather rises to a pitch of ferocity, all Malcolm's certainties are torn assunder. Finding himself linked to the baby Lyra, he is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change both of them forever.
The book is fast paced. A lot. I mean, it takes a while to get to the main issue: it climbs slowly at first and then all at once and then you won't be able to put it down! Philip Pullman manages to take us to his world again, capturing the feeling of His Dark Materials as it was like no time between the two series has passed. We get to see old characters of that series, fall in love with new ones and burn with hatred towards the villan! I'm sure this book stands on its own if you've never read His Dark Materials (why wouldn't you, though?) but I believe you'd be able to get more out of it if you'd read it first because there are few returning characters you'll like to see. You can also choose to do the other way around, that is, read La Belle Sauvage first and then embark on the amazing His Dark Materials journey (and then cry because The Secret Commonwealth still has no release date).
So please do yourself a favour a read La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman and get it on Book Depository with free shipping or Amazon and the let me know which animal do you think your dæmon is!
Sunday, 10 December 2017
The Struggles of a Beginner Cook
With my moving out the necessity to cook arose so, in case it's not clear by the title, the beginner cook is me. Even though the parents still send food everytime they see us, just in case we're starving ourselves with our inability to cook for ourselves we have managed to cook sometimes. And by "we have managed" I meant myself. The boyfriend doesn't cook but we've established before that I cook and he cleans everything afterwards and so far we've both been keeping our end of the deal.
I have not cooked much but I'm slowly learning and enjoying it. So far, I've been able to produce carrot rice, tuna rice, spaguetti, mashed potatoes from the scratch (and that made me spend almost one hour in the kitchen - never again), spaguetti alla carbonara, fish fingers (still working on that because the frying pan is not leveled enough for them to be evenly cooked) and sausages (the last ones were so much better than my first attempt as this last time I managed to cook them evenly!). I'm obviously not including the pizza or lasagna that I put in the microwave.
I feel like this is a part one of a long series of posts but so far these are my main issues with cooking:
The amount of pasta/rice
I honestly never know how much I should cook. A one time meal always turns into three meals for two. On one hand, it it sort of handy because I only have to cook once and then we have meals for later but on the other hand, one does get tired of eating the same thing. So I would like to be able to handle the quantities much better. I keep thinking I have the right amount and then it turns out I could have invited the whole family for dinner instead!
The heated oil
I am scared of this one! I managed to burn myself when making fish fingers because of the oil and now I'm scared for life! I've been wanting to make fries for a while now but since I don't own one of those sort of nets where one can put the potatoes and deep them in the burning oil, I'll have to find a solution. If anyone knows how to do it properly in a frying pan, please do let me know.
The amount of salt
Contrary to the pasta and rice issue, instead of overcooking, I usually don't put enough salt and this is because I'm always afraid it'll get too salty so I choose to not take that risk and underdo it instead.
Omelets and pancakes
Everytime I've tried cooking omelets or pancakes, so far, they've turned into scrambled eggs and a crazy shaped crepe instead. I've never managed to turn them to the other side properly so again, if you have any tricks please do share them with me. I've tried waiting for the bubbles to appear on the pancakes but even when the dough is full of little bubbles and I try to turn them they get misshapen.
The oven
The oven itself was a challenge to me, only solved yesterday evening with a higher level adult help (with this I mean the boyfriend's father came in our rescue). I tried everything to light up the oven, pressing two buttons at the same time, rotating the wheel to one side and then the other side, you name it. I even had a group chat with my friends and they weren't able to figure it out. In the end, apparently, this oven only releases the gas and needs an external fire to turn on so guess who has two thumbs and is going to buy the biggest lighter she finds in order to not get burnt? (It's this girl right here)
And this concludes my first set of struggles that I'm currently facing. I will ask again: if you know any tricks for these please do share your wisdom with me!
I have not cooked much but I'm slowly learning and enjoying it. So far, I've been able to produce carrot rice, tuna rice, spaguetti, mashed potatoes from the scratch (and that made me spend almost one hour in the kitchen - never again), spaguetti alla carbonara, fish fingers (still working on that because the frying pan is not leveled enough for them to be evenly cooked) and sausages (the last ones were so much better than my first attempt as this last time I managed to cook them evenly!). I'm obviously not including the pizza or lasagna that I put in the microwave.
I feel like this is a part one of a long series of posts but so far these are my main issues with cooking:
The amount of pasta/rice
I honestly never know how much I should cook. A one time meal always turns into three meals for two. On one hand, it it sort of handy because I only have to cook once and then we have meals for later but on the other hand, one does get tired of eating the same thing. So I would like to be able to handle the quantities much better. I keep thinking I have the right amount and then it turns out I could have invited the whole family for dinner instead!
The heated oil
I am scared of this one! I managed to burn myself when making fish fingers because of the oil and now I'm scared for life! I've been wanting to make fries for a while now but since I don't own one of those sort of nets where one can put the potatoes and deep them in the burning oil, I'll have to find a solution. If anyone knows how to do it properly in a frying pan, please do let me know.
The amount of salt
Contrary to the pasta and rice issue, instead of overcooking, I usually don't put enough salt and this is because I'm always afraid it'll get too salty so I choose to not take that risk and underdo it instead.
Omelets and pancakes
Everytime I've tried cooking omelets or pancakes, so far, they've turned into scrambled eggs and a crazy shaped crepe instead. I've never managed to turn them to the other side properly so again, if you have any tricks please do share them with me. I've tried waiting for the bubbles to appear on the pancakes but even when the dough is full of little bubbles and I try to turn them they get misshapen.
The oven
The oven itself was a challenge to me, only solved yesterday evening with a higher level adult help (with this I mean the boyfriend's father came in our rescue). I tried everything to light up the oven, pressing two buttons at the same time, rotating the wheel to one side and then the other side, you name it. I even had a group chat with my friends and they weren't able to figure it out. In the end, apparently, this oven only releases the gas and needs an external fire to turn on so guess who has two thumbs and is going to buy the biggest lighter she finds in order to not get burnt? (It's this girl right here)
And this concludes my first set of struggles that I'm currently facing. I will ask again: if you know any tricks for these please do share your wisdom with me!
Sunday, 3 December 2017
FIFA 18: The Prespective of a Player's Girlfriend
All FIFA 18 players' girlfriends (or boyfriends) know that when it comes to the end of September, every year without failing, our boyfriends can only think of one thing: the new release of FIFA. And then afterwards we know it'll be hard to make them come out of their cave, where they spend hours and hours researching the stats of the players, buying and selling them on their special market until they eventually start to play against other people, most likely as addicted as he is.
According to my boyfriend there is one and only rule while he plays this game, one must not speak to him when he's playing with someone else. And, considering he spends a reasonable part of the night before bed playing FIFA, you can imagine how fun our evenings can be. My favourite parts are when he starts to lose the game(s) and then the fun (aka fury combined with a couple of curse words) begins. And by favourite I mean that I dislike them very much because EA managed to create a game where people get mad very easily.
I have done an extensive research to be able to understand what I'm talking about here, including checking a bunch of stats on a website called Futbin, used by a lot of FIFA players to come up with their teams. Thus, I have recently learnt that there's three major events they usually lose sleep for: black friday (or weekend), team of the season and team of the year. These are also the periods where there's an apparent crash of the FIFA market because they buy a lot of packs (where you spend your fifa coins/points, which can also be bought with real money and which is also the reason why our boyfriends are always broke) in the hope of getting special cards to play with. So basically they spend real money on FIFA packs to have the possibility of getting special players, even though most of the players they get are very common.
I have tried getting into the game, at least so we could play together, but honestly, the fact that the game keeps switching between players without my consent makes me very anxious because oftentimes I don't agree with its choices. Another thing that I get really confused about is the so called script. Sometimes it decides pretty good kicks shouldn't be goals but hits on the bar instead. On the other hand, pretty lousy kicks sometimes manage to get inside the goal and the player doesn't even know how to repeat that feat!
I wish this game could be something we could play together but there's some issues here. Now, EA'S FIFA 18 doesn't appeal to me at all because I already have very little patience for real life football, let alone gaming football. The current gameplay doesn't appeal to me at all, which is understandable since the game's demographic and its target is mostly 20-25 men (I did my research here, yes). I'm sure there's women interested but since I'm not and I would like to be somewhat involved in this popular game that consumes most of my boyfriend's evenings here's my suggestion: While you don't create a figure skating game, please do a FIFA Sims version. My boyfriend would get to play with the players in the field and I would take care of them outside the field. I would be able to train them, improve their stats, maybe get them a pet, etc. Maybe we could even create new players from birth we could later sell in the market? Think about this, EA. I think I'm onto something here!
According to my boyfriend there is one and only rule while he plays this game, one must not speak to him when he's playing with someone else. And, considering he spends a reasonable part of the night before bed playing FIFA, you can imagine how fun our evenings can be. My favourite parts are when he starts to lose the game(s) and then the fun (aka fury combined with a couple of curse words) begins. And by favourite I mean that I dislike them very much because EA managed to create a game where people get mad very easily.
I have done an extensive research to be able to understand what I'm talking about here, including checking a bunch of stats on a website called Futbin, used by a lot of FIFA players to come up with their teams. Thus, I have recently learnt that there's three major events they usually lose sleep for: black friday (or weekend), team of the season and team of the year. These are also the periods where there's an apparent crash of the FIFA market because they buy a lot of packs (where you spend your fifa coins/points, which can also be bought with real money and which is also the reason why our boyfriends are always broke) in the hope of getting special cards to play with. So basically they spend real money on FIFA packs to have the possibility of getting special players, even though most of the players they get are very common.
I have tried getting into the game, at least so we could play together, but honestly, the fact that the game keeps switching between players without my consent makes me very anxious because oftentimes I don't agree with its choices. Another thing that I get really confused about is the so called script. Sometimes it decides pretty good kicks shouldn't be goals but hits on the bar instead. On the other hand, pretty lousy kicks sometimes manage to get inside the goal and the player doesn't even know how to repeat that feat!
I wish this game could be something we could play together but there's some issues here. Now, EA'S FIFA 18 doesn't appeal to me at all because I already have very little patience for real life football, let alone gaming football. The current gameplay doesn't appeal to me at all, which is understandable since the game's demographic and its target is mostly 20-25 men (I did my research here, yes). I'm sure there's women interested but since I'm not and I would like to be somewhat involved in this popular game that consumes most of my boyfriend's evenings here's my suggestion: While you don't create a figure skating game, please do a FIFA Sims version. My boyfriend would get to play with the players in the field and I would take care of them outside the field. I would be able to train them, improve their stats, maybe get them a pet, etc. Maybe we could even create new players from birth we could later sell in the market? Think about this, EA. I think I'm onto something here!
Sunday, 26 November 2017
On the Dishcloths Problematic
There's something common to all Portuguese grandmothers. I'm not entirely sure if it's worldwide but I'm certain it's nationwide. I believe all grandmothers have this wardrobe or trunk (in case of my own grandmother it's actually both) full of a variety of dishclothes, all in different shapes and forms. And they also spend a lot of time embroading around regular dishcloths so they added something and made them personal, with a little bit of them. I say dishcloths but this is also appliable to tablecloths, kitchen handles, cooking aprons, among many other possible things that can be "improved" with crochet. Basically any kind of cloth you can think of, I'm sure Portuguese grandmothers have at least 20 of these (and I'm being generous) with personal embroidery, and I'm not even counting with the festive ones - don't let me start on those!
"So what's the problem with that?", you may ask. That's a valid point. And I wouldn't mention this otherwise but here's the dishcloth problematic: once you move out your grandmother will make you bring half of their collection to your new house (and, again, I'm being generous when I say half of it). Since they spent half of their elderlyhood doing that crochet needlework with your moving out in mind, let me tell you how bad you'll feel when you see customized "I love you, granddaughter" on dishcloths and not bring it home with you. Now this creates a new problem: you will have to get either a wardrobe or a trunk to put all your dishcloths in (because if you're unlucky your partner will also have their fair share of dishcloths made by their grandmother) since they won't fit all in the kitchen drawers designated for that effect.
I have a friend who's currently moving out as well and she is having the exact same problem which leads me to believe this is typical of all grandmothers in Portugal, despite the small sample that I have for this study. Her problem is also aggravated because it's not only her grandmother contributing to her evergrowing dishcloths collection, but also her aunts and their neighbours. I, for one, have already three kitchen drawers full of them and had to put the remaining ones in a wardrobe. And I really hope my grandmothers don't give me more on this upcoming Christmas, I'm not sure where I'll find space to put them.
Okay. So you get a lot of dishcloths in your house and you actually have space for those without buying a special piece of furniture for them. You're a lucky one! But now there's another problem: it doesn't stop here. Now your family has a reason to give you any kind of cloth they can think of so you'll eventually run out of space.
"So what's the solution?" you ask again. And now we got to the point I'd like to discuss here. What do you think the solution for this big nation (possible world) wide scourge? We need to change our grandmother's mentalities. We need to make them see we don't need drawers full of them, a couple is more than enough. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this because telling them is clearly useless - believe me, I've tried several times already and the only thing I accomplished was a "you'll find space to put them somewhere".
"So what's the problem with that?", you may ask. That's a valid point. And I wouldn't mention this otherwise but here's the dishcloth problematic: once you move out your grandmother will make you bring half of their collection to your new house (and, again, I'm being generous when I say half of it). Since they spent half of their elderlyhood doing that crochet needlework with your moving out in mind, let me tell you how bad you'll feel when you see customized "I love you, granddaughter" on dishcloths and not bring it home with you. Now this creates a new problem: you will have to get either a wardrobe or a trunk to put all your dishcloths in (because if you're unlucky your partner will also have their fair share of dishcloths made by their grandmother) since they won't fit all in the kitchen drawers designated for that effect.
I have a friend who's currently moving out as well and she is having the exact same problem which leads me to believe this is typical of all grandmothers in Portugal, despite the small sample that I have for this study. Her problem is also aggravated because it's not only her grandmother contributing to her evergrowing dishcloths collection, but also her aunts and their neighbours. I, for one, have already three kitchen drawers full of them and had to put the remaining ones in a wardrobe. And I really hope my grandmothers don't give me more on this upcoming Christmas, I'm not sure where I'll find space to put them.
Okay. So you get a lot of dishcloths in your house and you actually have space for those without buying a special piece of furniture for them. You're a lucky one! But now there's another problem: it doesn't stop here. Now your family has a reason to give you any kind of cloth they can think of so you'll eventually run out of space.
"So what's the solution?" you ask again. And now we got to the point I'd like to discuss here. What do you think the solution for this big nation (possible world) wide scourge? We need to change our grandmother's mentalities. We need to make them see we don't need drawers full of them, a couple is more than enough. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this because telling them is clearly useless - believe me, I've tried several times already and the only thing I accomplished was a "you'll find space to put them somewhere".
Sunday, 19 November 2017
5 Things You Can Never Have Too Much of At Home
Last week I finally had a big change in my life I was very much looking forward to: I moved in with the boyfriend. And that came with a lot of shopping and finding a lot of things were missing we wouldn't even consider at first. So we decided to keep a list on the fridge of things we discovered that we didn't have and couldn't forget to buy next time we went shopping (of course one has to remember to bring the list when one goes shopping). Unsurprisingly, the list grew bigger everytime we entered a new division, mostly the kitchen, because there are really so many things one never thinks one needs except when you actually need them. Here's five things we discovered we can never have too much of:
1 - Outlet extensions: Rather obvious, this one. However, we pretty much need an outlet extension for every outlet we have in the house. We bought three of these and we still need another one!
2 - Tupperwares: While I agree this one can be a trap we definitely don't have enough of these at the moment and I think you only have too much of them if you've bought 50! I feel like tupperwares come in so many shapes and sizes it's very easy to fill all the ones you have with something and, therefore, very easy to run out of them!
3 - Hangers: Trust me on this one. When you think you may have too many of this you'll find out you need more and that you're actually putting two or three things in the same hanger. The only exception is, of course, if you have a quite limited wardrobe space. In this case it may be easier for you to reach your limit amount of hangers but you'll see you wish you could have more.
4 - Clothespins: You not only use these for clothes but also to clip food packages like cookies and chips. Bascially everything and anything that is sold in packages and is not eaten or used immediately. You (and by you I mean me) can easily lose them or break them so having a good stock of them is essential, in my opinion!
5 - Bags: Either paper or plastic these are essencial in any home. Since they introduced the bag tax here in Portugal whenever you go grocery shopping if you forget a bag, you have two options: either you carry everything in your hands or you buy a big one. So whenever a store gives one out for free when you buy something you can bet I'm keeping it for later use! Now, you have to be selective about this one because you can quickly become burried in a miscellany of different bags so it's important to keep different sized and very resistent ones, throwing away the ones that don't make this cut or the ones that become too old and used.
And that's pretty much it! I hope this was somewhat helpful and if you have any suggestions please let me know, because I may need to actually add them to my fridge list!
1 - Outlet extensions: Rather obvious, this one. However, we pretty much need an outlet extension for every outlet we have in the house. We bought three of these and we still need another one!
2 - Tupperwares: While I agree this one can be a trap we definitely don't have enough of these at the moment and I think you only have too much of them if you've bought 50! I feel like tupperwares come in so many shapes and sizes it's very easy to fill all the ones you have with something and, therefore, very easy to run out of them!
3 - Hangers: Trust me on this one. When you think you may have too many of this you'll find out you need more and that you're actually putting two or three things in the same hanger. The only exception is, of course, if you have a quite limited wardrobe space. In this case it may be easier for you to reach your limit amount of hangers but you'll see you wish you could have more.
4 - Clothespins: You not only use these for clothes but also to clip food packages like cookies and chips. Bascially everything and anything that is sold in packages and is not eaten or used immediately. You (and by you I mean me) can easily lose them or break them so having a good stock of them is essential, in my opinion!
5 - Bags: Either paper or plastic these are essencial in any home. Since they introduced the bag tax here in Portugal whenever you go grocery shopping if you forget a bag, you have two options: either you carry everything in your hands or you buy a big one. So whenever a store gives one out for free when you buy something you can bet I'm keeping it for later use! Now, you have to be selective about this one because you can quickly become burried in a miscellany of different bags so it's important to keep different sized and very resistent ones, throwing away the ones that don't make this cut or the ones that become too old and used.
And that's pretty much it! I hope this was somewhat helpful and if you have any suggestions please let me know, because I may need to actually add them to my fridge list!
Sunday, 5 November 2017
Book review: Harry Potter: A History of Magic (Various Authors)
This year, 2017, J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury and the curators of the British Library joined together in a once-in-a-lifetime colaboration to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. A brand new exhibition opened its doors in London, taking visitors in.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is the companion to that unique collaboration, filled with weird, wonderful and inspiring artefacts from the British Library archives and unseen treasures from J. K. Rowling's personal collection. This book invites you to delve deeper into the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry - from Astronomy and Potion classes to Charms and Divination.
A host of experts (Steve Backshall, the Reverend Richard Coles, Owen Davies, Julia Eccleshare, Roger Highfield, Steve Kloves, Lucy Mangan, Anna Pavord and Tim Peake), who offer a personal perspective on their magical theme, are on hand to guide you through each magical subject with a commissioned essay, leading you into a treasure trove of artefacts from the British Library and other collections around the world. Readers will be able to pore over ancient spell books, marvel at celestial globes and unfurl amazing illuminated scrolls that reveal the secret of the Elixir of Life, vials of dragon's blood, serpent wands, curious mandrake roots, painted centaurs and a genuine witch's broomstick, in a book that shows J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their cultural and historical forebears with exclusive manuscripts, sketches and illustrations from the Harry Potter archive.
Naturally I went to my local bookstore when I heard this book was out which, unfortunately for me and the portuguese people, it took one week from its publication date to hit the portuguese shelves. Let's be real, though: we've waited way longer than that for other books so we can sort of consider ourselves lucky because one week is not that much. I had both this book and its companion in my hands (Harry Potter: A Journey Through A History of Magic) and here's a piece of advice: buy the first if you're interested. From the quick look I took at it, the companion is merely a shorter version and I felt like it was directioned towards a younger crowd.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a book filled with historic artefacts somehow related to many subjects J. K. Rowling talks about in her books and we can see where she drew her inspiration from so if you're looking for an actual Harry Potter History of Magic this is not for you. To be honest, what I enjoyed the most weren't the exhibition parts but the books' excerpts where they show J. K. Rowling's doodling and her thoughts and early drafts planning the series where you can see how it has evolved. I also loved the illustrations done by Jim Kay included in the newest illustrated editions of the first three books. After reading the book I can say I will definitely not miss being in the London exhibition because I feel like the book has it all, except, perhaps, the souvenirs.
So if you're both a history and Harry Potter fan you can get Harry Potter: A History of Magic through Book Depository with free shipping and Amazon. Let me know what you though of it afterwards!
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is the companion to that unique collaboration, filled with weird, wonderful and inspiring artefacts from the British Library archives and unseen treasures from J. K. Rowling's personal collection. This book invites you to delve deeper into the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry - from Astronomy and Potion classes to Charms and Divination.
A host of experts (Steve Backshall, the Reverend Richard Coles, Owen Davies, Julia Eccleshare, Roger Highfield, Steve Kloves, Lucy Mangan, Anna Pavord and Tim Peake), who offer a personal perspective on their magical theme, are on hand to guide you through each magical subject with a commissioned essay, leading you into a treasure trove of artefacts from the British Library and other collections around the world. Readers will be able to pore over ancient spell books, marvel at celestial globes and unfurl amazing illuminated scrolls that reveal the secret of the Elixir of Life, vials of dragon's blood, serpent wands, curious mandrake roots, painted centaurs and a genuine witch's broomstick, in a book that shows J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their cultural and historical forebears with exclusive manuscripts, sketches and illustrations from the Harry Potter archive.
Naturally I went to my local bookstore when I heard this book was out which, unfortunately for me and the portuguese people, it took one week from its publication date to hit the portuguese shelves. Let's be real, though: we've waited way longer than that for other books so we can sort of consider ourselves lucky because one week is not that much. I had both this book and its companion in my hands (Harry Potter: A Journey Through A History of Magic) and here's a piece of advice: buy the first if you're interested. From the quick look I took at it, the companion is merely a shorter version and I felt like it was directioned towards a younger crowd.
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a book filled with historic artefacts somehow related to many subjects J. K. Rowling talks about in her books and we can see where she drew her inspiration from so if you're looking for an actual Harry Potter History of Magic this is not for you. To be honest, what I enjoyed the most weren't the exhibition parts but the books' excerpts where they show J. K. Rowling's doodling and her thoughts and early drafts planning the series where you can see how it has evolved. I also loved the illustrations done by Jim Kay included in the newest illustrated editions of the first three books. After reading the book I can say I will definitely not miss being in the London exhibition because I feel like the book has it all, except, perhaps, the souvenirs.
So if you're both a history and Harry Potter fan you can get Harry Potter: A History of Magic through Book Depository with free shipping and Amazon. Let me know what you though of it afterwards!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
