Update: anime, books, and drawing

Can't believe this is my first post this month. I've been slacking. Okay, I have some good-ish explanation. In short I was so not in a state to write anything. I was, however, in the mood to draw. And watch some anime. Not movies. Reading... not quite, a little.

This is a classical case of life happening. Work has been crazy lately. Besides an increase in customers (which is actually not a problem at all) some of the people I work with have gone completely nuts. Some ridiculous things go on, I don't even think you would believe all of it if I were to write it down here. I might do that at some point, preferably when that's not my main income source, but until then, take my word for it: people are nuts! 

Moving along~

Music Break #38

Two more books by Louisa May Alcott

 

     

I would put the titles of the books instead of 'two more books', but they are so long! The books are The Abbot's Ghost, or Maurice Treherne's Temptation: A Christmas Story and Behind a Mask; or, a Woman's Power. Just look at those titles. 

Moving along, when I wrote about Little Women I mentioned at the end of the post that the books Louisa May Alcott wrote under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard were more appealing to me. I downloaded then these two books and I was pretty eager to start reading them. Of course, it took my a while to do so and today I put in extra effort to finish reading the second book.

Music Break #37

Eyeglasses. Or look, individual leaves!

I spend a lot of time on my laptop or staring at my phone, like a lot of other people. There's reading going on various sites, apps and novels (I have a timer on the app I use for books that lets me know when I should take a break, but I always ignore it) so eye straining happens. Because of that my eyes got stingy and red and they even hurt. After I got asked for the umpteenth time if I don't get enough sleep I decided that's it, I have to go get my eyes tested. So I made an appointment. 

Good news is my eyes are healthy. Bad news is I do need glasses (but not for reading, surprisingly). Worse news is I knew for a while that I needed glasses. 

Masquerade Hotel film

Masquerade Hotel is a long waited film by me. I looked it up all over the place (that being the Internet), but couldn't find it until one day when I just stumbled across it by mistake. I don't even remember what I was looking for, chances are I was randomly browsing films hoping to find something to watch when there it was. I did not hesitate and hit play immediately. 

Music Break #36

Diary of J. Long Distance Relationships.

A while ago I said I am thinking of re-writing / translating / whatever some of my previous dear diary posts. Well, here I am, this is the first one. But before I go into my experience with long distance relationships and how I view them, the photo you see on this post is taken by Mathyas Kurmann.

Julie & Julia

Once in a while I go through all the films some of the actors I like have been in and pick one to watch. Usually I read the synopsis, check the ratings and if everything looks good to me, I dump the film on my watchlist. The films can stay on my watchlist for months before I actually watch them, and some I remove without even bothering to try and watch. 

I don't know why I do that. Maybe some of them sound interesting to me when I first find them, but I'm not in the mood when I want to watch something so after I skip them time and time again, I remove them. There are also cases when I don't find a particular film from my list to watch so there's no point in keeping it on the list. 

When it comes to Julie & Julia, the film was on my list for a few months, but it kept calling me. I'm weak for real life inspired films and when I watched the trailer it looked so fun. 

Music Break #35

The big cycle of procrastination

(Almost) No one is unfamiliar with this word, but for the sake of it and because I really like the dictionary format, I'm copy/pasting the definition a few paragraphs below. 

People sometimes get frustrated and upset with their procrastinating habits, and they turn to the big ol' Internet for tips and tricks on how to stop procrastinating. For me there seems to be only one thing that actually works, but first let's see what procrastination is and how the Internet suggests to combat it. 

The Agency series by Ada Maria Soto

            

There are those type of novels where you read the synopsis and think to yourself, hmm, this sounds interesting, action filled, funny, maybe cute, and you go read it expecting that. Only that you start reading and the novel is nothing like you expected it to be. 

That being said, if you don't already know anything about this series I encourage you to not read my 'review' and go straight to reading the series.

Music Break #34

Haircut? Yes!

Back in March, actually even before that, I decided to let my hair grow. I've had long hair before, I quite like it, and sometimes when I have short hair I think hmm, I would like me some length. So that was my plan. Straightforward, easy, literally no effort. Only it didn't go as I was expecting it to: me just doing whatever it is I do and then, bam, nice long hair. The hair is there and it lets you know it is there.

Antique BL movie

I can't believe I didn't write about this movie here. I was so sure I did, but no. I checked, I double checked. 

Antique is one of my absolute favourite BL films. I watched it when there weren't that many BL films available for me and that probably had something to do with why I liked it so much. Who knows. I had it on my laptop for a while, along with other of my favourites, and re-watched it I don't even know how many times. Even now I wouldn't mind a re-watch. 

Music Break #33

Update. New device

Oh, here I am! I think this is two weeks with no new post on here, but I have a half good explanation. 

Initially I planned on not writing anything for one week. I just didn't have anything to write about (now I have a small list) so I thought, meh, I could have a break until I figure out what I want to write about. My break, however, was extended with the 'help' of my laptop.

The Boss series by Abigail Barnette

I just finished reading this series last night and I have to write about it. I went through the first five out of seven books really fast and then I slowed down on the last two because I started work again, after the lockdown.

A bit of a background on how I got to read this series:

A while ago I came across a link to Jenny Trout's blog where she wrote a chapter by chapter review to a popular and questionable at best BDSM novel. Something about the colour grey. I didn't read all of the posts, but I do occasionally go read a chapter review to have fun and see an example of "this is not good" or read some of the replies.

Happily reading these reviews, I also learned about another questionable BDSM novel recently turned movie. This was when I started asking myself is there no good F/M BDSM novel out there?

And then I realised: there might be, Jenny Trout wrote something!

Music Break #32

Dear Diary

This is not actually a diary post, it's more like a trying to figure out what post. Or something.

A while ago I started writing a few diary posts, three to be more precise, and I want to keep writing them, only I'm not sure on how to proceed. I don't want to set a schedule for when to write them, I want to write them whenever I feel like it, but my issue with it right now is what language am I going to use. 

The Garden of Words

The Garden of Words is an incredibly beautiful animation with a lot of rain. I always liked rain, I like the sound, the smell. The best mornings are the ones when it rains and I can stay in bed, half asleep and listening to the water drops falling to the ground. It is so calming, it makes me so happy, and seeing and hearing it in this animated film, it got me feeling just like that.

Music Break #31

Water filter > bottled water

The last thing I ever imagined myself writing about is water filters. Actually, water filters never even was an option. But hear me out: water filters are great and I'm glad to own one.

I wish I could say I am the type of person who cares for the environment that much, and while that did have something to do with me purchasing a water filter, that was not the main reason. I try to do things for the environment, like not littering and using my own bag (usually backpack) when shopping, but that's about it. I mostly abide the rules and try being a decent citizen (which, actually, I think more people should do), but that's about it.

Yakuza Pride novel

Yakuza Pride by H.J. Brues is one of the first BL novels I ever read. After reading S series by Saki Aida I was eager to read more in the genre and so I came across Yakuza Pride. Since then I re-read the novel (re-read S too) a few times and it is one of my favourites. I am surprised I didn't write about it yet.

The main characters are the yakuza underboss Shigure Matsunaga and the son of an American congressman, Kenneth 'Kenshin' Harris. They meet at a boring event and almost immediately fireworks start sparkling. Both for them and for me because I was hooked from the first pages.

The novel follows the start of Shigure and Ken's relationship, the struggles they have to face, the way Shigure's people view Ken, how Ken can cope with it all, as well as unexpected threats and complications.

Music Break #30

Lockdown vs 'normal'

I am one of those people that had no issue staying inside the house for three months. I really enjoyed myself, I was happy to write on blog, write RP and read a lot. I also picked up some tricks concerning shopping so that I would go out only when necessary. It was great.

Now I started work again and I've been going on a spending spree that I don't know how to feel about. I am not totally reckless; about a month after the shops opened, I first stepped into one and that only because I started working again and I really needed some stuff for work. It kinda went crazy from there.

The Man Standing Next film

At 139 (and counting) seen Korean films I think I can safely say I am a fan of Korean cinema.

My Korean films journey started with Korean thrillers, one my favourites being Confession of Murder. Since I was pretty new to the genre and I was not used to these types of films with a lot of twists and turns, I was surprised in the best way possible and I jumped right into watching more Korean films.

My favourite genres are drama, thrillers (d'uh) and action (especially cop or gangster), but what I like the most is the comedy in these films. It's almost impossible to not have any comedic relief in Korean movies, and most of the times it is hilarious.

I don't only watch those genres, sometimes I feel like watching something like a historical film or a romance one.

The Man Standing Next (dir: Woo Min-ho) fits the historical category.

Music Break #29

Join. Join. Leave.

There are a whole lot of platforms nowadays where people can chat. We moved from 1 on 1 conversations on IM or Y!Messenger to chatting in groups on forums and instant messaging communities. One of such platform that I am on, along with a large number of Internet users, is Discord and now I want to vent a little about some Discord users. And maybe find answers to some of my questions.

John Grisham

As I'm writing this, I just came back from the store. I went to get myself something sweet as I had a craving, but ended up getting something better. The fun thing about this store is that there are books too. I've been avoiding that area for the last few trips because I tend to buy a book (or three) when I roam around, but this time I really felt like going and having a look.

I told myself I won't be buying any books so off I went. There was a book that caught my attention for the whole of five seconds until I saw "The Guardians" by John Grisham. The thing with me and John Grisham is that I see the book and I buy it. Nothing matters, I see John Grisham and I go in a trance of some sort.

You probably know about John Grisham, maybe you even watched some of the films or mini-series inspired by his books, he is a well known author so I'm not going to bore you with details you can easily find on wikipedia. I'm going to resume at my impression of his novels.

Music Break #28

What am I watching on YouTube these days?

I try to limit my time on YouTube as much as possible. I feel down the rabbit hole too many times before, so now I only watch YouTube videos while I'm eating (it's too quiet otherwise, I'm all alone) and I usually just open YouTube, go to my Subscriptions and pick something from there. At some point I realised I didn't actually watch the channels I am subscribed to and decided I want to change that. This is working great so far, I don't spend a lot of time looking for something and I also save music videos to my watch later list so I won't have to hunt for new music when I feel like it. It's a win-win situation.

Of course, I do get the ocassional suggestion on the homepage that catches my attention and a few days ago I got a suggestion for a video uploaded by Jim Browning. I'm going to focus on talking about his channel in this post.

(what I didn't like about) I'll Be Your Drill, Soldier novel

I think I'm going to make a habit of taking something out of a novel I read or movie I watched and write about it. I'm slowly discovering that I really like doing that so why not. There are so many things that can be overlooked in something and I am the first to admit that if I would have read this novel over ten years ago, when it first came out, I might have been head over heels, but since I only read it now, after seeing and learning some things, I'm all the way on the other side of the ruler. 

There are three major things I didn't like in this novel and I will write about them in the order I encountered them. So, shall we?

Music Break #27

The people on the cover? No idea who they are.

There's that well known quote, we all know it, it says "don't judge a book by its cover" and I try, I really try not to judge it especially since more often than not the book proves to be way better than the cover. But at the same time I can't just ignore the cover, it is there for a reason, it was designed with a purpose, someone thought about it and made a decision, so I can't ignore it, but if I don't ignore it I can't help judging it. It's a mess.

The truth is a book cover, as I see it, is meant to make you want to pick up that book from the shelf, buy it and read it, then go for more. Some of the books I've read made me want to to the opposite, some of them I read with a "let's see how bad this is" mindset. Luckily, some proved to be amazing books that I enjoyed a lot.

Other books were exactly what I expected from the cover. The cover looked cheap, not thought about, some were downright repulsive to me, and the book was the same. I read some, rated them low, and some I gave up on entirely. There's just so much I can read before I feel like throwing the book into the sun.

Little Women—book vs movie

I've had this film on my watch list for a while. I don't know what made me want to watch it, most likely Emma Watson because I like watching the cast of HP in various movies and see how they manage to slip into another character. I don't know, I think they are great actors and I enjoy watching them in roles as diverse as possible. I don't go out of my way to do it, but if I come across a movie that looks interesting, why not.

So while I had Little Women on my watch list I happened to see the book in a store and I thought it would be fun to read the book then watch the movie and compare the two. What I did not know when I bought the book was that Little Women is a series. As I am not a fan of the genre I had no idea and no one bothered to specify that on the cover, I only got a hint about it on the very last page. There are two other books, Little Men and Jo's Boys that I have no interest in reading (I'll get to that).

Music Break #26

About hate

There are those words that we like because they sound a certain way, they roll comfortably out of our mouths. Then there are those words we don't like, weird and ugly and sometimes we avoid saying them. 

And there is 'hate' that, if I look at it from an aesthetics point of view, it's not ugly, but it's not pretty either. It doesn't stand out in any way, it's just a word we have. If I look at it from a semantics point of view, 'hate' is an ugly word, it's exactly what it describes, and it's powerful. 

Hello My Love movie //what's wrong with Ho-jung?

I've had my eyes on this movie for a while now, but for some reason the best time I found to watch it was on a Thursday at 05AM while eating strawberries and cheesecake. When I decide on what movie to watch, I usually go on Letterboxd and look at the ratings, anything up to 2.4 stars is usually not worth it, anything above 3.3 stars is usually average and anything above 4.8 is close to bloody amazing. Hello My Love (about which I also wrote a review here if that's what you'd rather read, because on here I'm just going to throw eggs at the characters) is at about 3.3 so of course I think yes, this looks fun, I want to watch it. And then I started watching it and got really pissed at the main characters.

Music Break #25

The Impostor Syndrome and Me

Lately I keep bumping into this term, the impostor syndrome, and it got me thinking. I knew about it before, I knew it might apply to me too, but I didn't really think about it. And I don't actually keep bumping into it, it's just one of those situation when you see something, think about it and then suddenly you notice it almost everywhere. That's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Isn't it great how every single thing has a name and someone studied it and now we are able to understand it and act accordingly? Same with impostor syndrome, impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or impostorism how it's also known as.

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) (could be worse)

I'm not going to write a review for this book because I wrote one here. Instead I want to focus on a passage that I liked a lot and made me want to write about. But before that, Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L. C. Rosen is a fantastic read, it might be one of the best books I read this year, it has everything and a little bit more. It is very well written, it offers some very good lessons and it is interesting, mysterious and touching.

About the passage I mentioned and that I'm going to copy/paste here, I would like to specify the page it is on too, but on ebooks apparently there are no pages, only percentages, so I'm only going to specify the chapter.

Music Break #24

How I quit smoking

A while ago I saw an article with the exact same title as this one. At the time I was still smoking, so that was a few years ago, and I had no intention to quit then, but I still liked reading about it. The problem with that article is that the author talked everything about smoking and how bad it is and how beneficial it was for them to quit and said nothing, absolutely nothing about the how. It pissed me off. So dear author, if you ever come across this post, you suck, that was literally clickbait and, if you missed it the first time, you suck. 

Fun fact: it takes about six weeks for your body to get used to the missing nicotine.

Fun fact²: it takes about nine months for the lungs to recover after quitting smoking. 

Fun fact³: after quitting depends on you if you consider yourself as an ex-smoker or not.

Well then, now that I got that covered, shall we? 

Blog Challenge! II // 10. Top 5 pieces of clothing

📷 ig

This is the final topic for my blog challenge and I must say I am glad I managed to do it all without it taking me way longer than necessary. I am also done with these type of posts for a while because although I enjoyed it a lot, I want to write about other stuff while trying to maintain a similar schedule. 

Going right into it, there are some items I wear depending on seasons, so I'm going to keep that in mind while writing about them. These are items I absolutely wear, that I like or that are practical. 

I also don't have a lot of clothes right now. I didn't take a lot of stuff with me when I moved and since everything has been closed these couple of months and I don't feel confident enough to order online, I mostly have a few winter clothes, three tops and no summer clothes. That being said, I'll think back to the items I  do have now or that are on my list to buy once things get calmer.

Music Break #23

Blog Challenge! II // 09. Recipe post

📷 iG

At some point during my blogging adventure I thought about making a recipe series, writing easy and fast to make dishes. Of course, being a broke student at the time and with not many options, that idea didn't fly, so now I just write some if I feel like it.

What I should probably mention is that I am that type of home cooks who likes to experiment in the kitchen. Except for very few dishes I don't know if my food has the same taste every time I make it. But well, I like to think I'm a pretty good cook so that is not a problem.

Usually I like using the oven and if you don't I must ask why? I find it easier to cook things in the oven and they are often so delicious, everything from meats to baked vegetables (and those are so good). This time I won't write an oven recipe, though, I will write something I made a few days ago. I felt like eating fish and for some reason I had bought some surimi and kind prawns so yeah, that's the next best thing. This is the first time I ever made something with king prawns and it was so delicious, I have to share.

This should take anywhere in between 10 to 15 minutes to make, give or take. 

sense8

Following my recent decision of not being so adverse to TV shows, I decided to write about one of my favourite shows ever, and that is  sense8 . Part of this decision was helped by me constantly recommending this series left and right, so I thought I'd better plaster it on my blog (again because I actually wrote about it before, but that was just after I had watched the first season and the review is in Romanian) before I manage to really annoy someone.

I know this series is not a general favourite. I mean, it was cancelled after just two seasons because it didn't attract a wide enough audience, which is a shame in my humble opinion, but it is what it is and I am free to re-watch it as many times as I please.

Music Break #22

Blog Challenge! II // 08. What do you do when you are feeling lost?

📷 !g

I am happy to say I haven't felt lost in a long while. I think that when I typed this challenge I was feeling rather lost, hence this topic. Since this is not the case anymore, I'm going to try and remember what I did do (I'll leave out one particular episode) when I was feeling lost. 

This might become a mix  what I did and what I wish I would have done, but, well, aren't most things like that? Same as me, I'm certain you too have some things that you think about and wish you would have done something differently. But don't dwell too much on them, what's done is done. Instead let's type them out and share them so we can inspire others. 

I won't go into the seriousness of it because, really, who is to say what is serious and to what degree? Same shit affects us differently. What is serious to me is a breeze to you and vice-versa. 

But enough fussing around, let's get to it. 

I think I'm in love

Not with another person, but with the sea. Here, let me explain.

Last time I wrote about my birthday I was pretty sad and worried. I was all alone (not that I am not alone now too, but a different kind of alone), and a bit angry at the world, at how mean and cruel people are (that is still valid, sadly), but I also tried to  remind myself that not everyone is awful. 

If I think about it I actually see more funny and uplifting things on social media than bleak, dark news. 

But this is not what I want to write about now. 

Music Break #21

Blog Challenge! II // 07. Mornings

📷 < 3

I have a complicated relationship with mornings. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm pretty much a night owl. I function best at night, I find it easier to concentrate, I'm basically at my peak in the evening or late at night. 

I also love sleeping in. I get the best rest in the early hours of the morning to up until just before noon. 

That being said, I am not the biggest fan of mornings, but at the same time I really like them. 

Wait, I can explain.

Marshals series by Mary Calmes

A while ago, sometime in February, I read the Marshals series by Mary Calmes, and these days I finally published all the reviews I wrote about the series on Yaoi Otaku . If you want, you can read them all on YO, if not, this post is going to basically be a summary of what I wrote on YO. I guess? It's probably going to be more like a what's it about because my hatred for spoilers inhibits me from actually letting loose. Maybe let me know if I managed to spark your interest or not.

Before I go into it, the Marshals series was first published in 2014, the fourth and last volume being published in 2018. Yes, there are four books, five if we count the short novella that I'm going to talk about in a few paragraphs, and sadly there is no news or hint of a sequel. 

If you plan on reading the series and don't like spoilers, maybe don't read the whole post, read perhaps only about the first book of the series if you are not yet convinced you want to read it. I will try not to give any spoilers, but I feel like reading about the other books might spoil the fun. 

Music Break #20

Blog Challenge! II // 06. Are things how you imagined they will be?

📷 p h o t o

No, not really. 

I think most of you can relate if I say I had quite big dreams when I was little and as I grew up, before reality hit me like a musty tomato thrown to my face. And I did have quite the dreams, oh, yes. I dreamed about having my own place, about travelling to see the world, about having friends to go out with. Stuff like that. I also dreamed about all the things I would accomplish, not big, but important for me at the time. 

Did any of these actually happen? Nope. Not quite But it's not all that bad. 

Favourite Instagram art accounts

As promised, here I am with the second wave of links. I mentioned in my previous post about my favourite Instagram photography accounts (check them out if you haven't yet), that I am going to put up a list and post my favourite art accounts. Now, most of these artists can also be found on sites like twitter and/or tumblr if you don't have an Instagram account, so fear not, beautiful art shall be seen. 

Music Break #19

Blog Challenge! II // 05. Favourite Instagram accounts

📷 i m G

This is the post I was mostly looking forward to write, and the one that actually helped me decide to pick up this challenge from the drafts and get it going. 

I made an Instagram account mainly to be able to follow my favourite artists. One artist. I made it so I can follow Ruki, okay, I admit it! And for a while that and about two others were the only accounts I was following. Then I'm not quite sure what happened, but somewhere along the way I realised I can both follow people that take incredible pictures and can upload my own pictures, and that was it. I started following even more people, I upload sometimes when I remember I have a lot of pictures crammed into a folder and I was actually looking forward to share some of my favourites.

Initially I was thinking about splitting this post in two, but I kinda changed my mind. I wanted to link both photography accounts and art accounts, but I think each category deserves it's own post, so instead I'm going to write here about my favourite photography accounts and later this week I'm going to post a list of my favourite art accounts. I think they deserve their own post, and also because I just have a feeling I'm going to throw a lot of links at you.

Let's talk hygiene

I just read a funny post on instagram about how a customer in some coffee shop asked to have his coffee in a paper cup instead of porcelain because germs, the flu and whatnot and he didn't want to risk getting anything nasty. The barista explained to him that due to regulations the cup comes out of the washing machine basically sterile (where I work for example, we wash the dishes once by hand and then they go inside this big scary machine and get washed again with high pressure hot water and disinfectant/detergent). The customer didn't want to risk it so he got the paper cup. After having his coffee, out the door he was, on his merry way.

Now let's see what's wrong in this picture: 

Music Break #18

Blog Challenge! II // 04. People badmouthing other people

📷 I G

I'm not sure what I was on when I wrote the topics (by topics I mean this topic) of this challenge, but since I did put this down, let's see what I can ramble on it. I think this is going to be a fun writing exercise, I'm going to try and view it as an essay of some sort. Or whatever else this might turn out to be.

—————

 

Along with a lot of things I didn't really get to understand, there is also why people badmouth others. It happens everywhere to anyone, from family to friends, schoolmates, co-workers, to even strangers, people that you never met. The last category is the weirdest to me. Why would people badmouth someone they don't even know? What could one possibly say in such a situation? And what's the purpose?

The Thin Blue Line

As I am certain most of you do as well, I keep looking for things to keep myself busy these days and since I obviously spend a lot of time at home, just me and my PC (and phone, ofc) I though it would be a great idea to watch some TV shows and anime. I actually managed to finish watching a few series and even picked up some I forgot about. I'm just not made for this ongoing thing, I have zero patience. I'm in agony now waiting for the new episode of Killing Eve. 

And while I've been agonizing, I looked another way. Besides anime that I am not going to write about now, I watched The Thin Blue Line. Not that movie that keeps popping up when you search the title, but the TV show. So let's see what's that line all about. 

Music Break #17

Blog Challenge! II // 03. Childhood Songs

📷 ...

Oh boy! Childhood songs. Now that's a topic. I have a feeling I'm going to do quite a bit of youtube digging to find some of the songs. It's going to be fun. Yes, let the nostalgia come all over me. 

First of all, let's see who my favourites were. I had three favourites that I recall, there might have been more. 

How to start a conversation

Occasionally, maybe once every six months, even less often, I get a random message on Instagram from random people. I suppose they either want to have a casual conversation, are a bot account, or try to hit on me. Whichever the reason is, I do not respond, and the reason lies in the initial message. Although, to be honest, sometimes people I know but don't follow send me messages and I ignore them, but that's another story. 

Here's why I don't consider replying.

Music Break #16

Blog Challenge! II // 02. Describe yourself in three words

📷 I M G

I don't know about you guys, but I was always bad at describing myself. Ever since the days of forums when your first post had to be an introductory post. Or at school when the teacher asked us what we did all summer, or in other settings where we have to introduce ourselves, when you make an account on a dating app (those of us who are hopeless and helpless) or even as simple as introducing yourself when learning a new language. I always, always sucked at it. I don't even know why. I've known myself since ever, how can I not be able to describe myself? 

I'm going to try and do it, and for that I'm going to pick three words that I feel best characterize me, and I'm also going to go into a bit of detail on each of those three words because I think most of the time just one word is not enough. I'll start with a positive word, then a negative word, and then a neutral word. 

The Future is Now

On my recent trip at the store I kept hearing an announcement over the speakers. They were saying about an app you can download on your phone that allows you to scan your products, get them right into your bag and with everything already secured, you can go to the self checkout and pay. This happened at Sainsbury's. 

Oh, wait, I forgot to mention a few things. 

Music Break #15

Blog Challenge II // 01. How do you focus?

📷 ✿

We certainly live in a time when it's hard to focus. There are so many distractions: the TV, the phone on which we can see and learn about whatever interested us for so long (yet we tend to not do that) and so many sites and apps that we often open just by habit. 

I, for one, find myself opening a tab or an app, spend some time on it, get bored, close it and then open it again. I won't believe you if you tell me this never happened to you. Sometimes I have a certain site open in a tab on my browser and I open a new tab with the same site because I'm looking for something entertaining or fun. It's ridiculous! But the first step was made, I acknowledged it and now I'm working on it.

So how do I focus with all these distractions that I allowed to claim a big portion of my online activity? 

Focusing is really easy for me (motivation is something I struggle with) and it usually goes like this:

Killing Eve

If you didn't watch Killing Eve yet, that's okay, no biggie. Maybe you didn't hear about it or maybe you had something else on your watch list. But fear not, now it's a great time to watch it! There are about 10 days until the start of the third season, so plenty of time to binge the first two. I didn't need two days to re-watch them, so we know it's doable.

Blog Challenge! II //

Vector flower from pngtree.com