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Friday, May 20, 2016

March/April summary

Books

Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Coles - it is already a bit outdated book because cosmology evolves very fast but still nice popular science book to read.


Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - it is ok young adult novel (first book in a series) but for me it doesn't live up to the hype. Nevertheless, I will read the next books in the series.

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson - final book in Reckoners series and it was as cool as the previous ones in the trilogy + novellas.

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkowski - final book in the Winner's trilogy. I haven't been disappointed and I enjoyed the read.

Movies

I saw only two movies in theater those two months Spotlight and Room. Both were good.

Travel

Leiden





On a way from Leiden to The Hague





The Hague





Beach in The Hague (Scheveningen)



Rotterdam






Life Events

I handed in my thesis in cosmology on the beginning of March and right after I have moved to Netherlands to start an internship in a patent office. In the end of April I went to Denmark to prepare for defense of my thesis.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

February Note

There is not much shareable stuff that happened in February.
What I mean is that I saw no movie or read no novel. But as for career/live this month was crazy!

I would like to share some small thing that I have discovered while doing my thesis project. I wish I had known about it before I started.

Breathing

Yep...
I always found meditation a bit hard and somehow I couldn't see myself becoming good in it. Now I do it every day just before sleeping. Why before sleeping? Well, because there is so much going on in my life and there is so much information and stuff in this world that sometimes one can feel overwhelmed by everything. I find myself very often laying in bed and thinking obsessively about an infinite amount of things that could easily wait until morning. It used to steal the night away from me. But apparently I am not the sharpest fish in the sea, and I cannot think and breathe according to a given pattern at the same time!!?? And I am so glad for that because a very simple app with breathing exercise helps me to calm down and get some quality sleep no matter how exciting/stressful/painful the day before was or the day to come seemed to be. Also doing this exercise on a daily basis builds inner calmness which fills one's body with positive energy... or, at least, it feels like that.


Tuesday, February 2, 2016

January wrap up

Books

"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read"
- Internet claims it was Mark Twain who said it but who knows...

Last year I have read 26 books! So I actually managed to fulfill my aim of reading two books per month ;) I probably should aim for three books per month this year... Although I have read an article about some crazy challenge of reading 100 books in a year?! I am obviously intrigued... but let's see what improvement I will make this year and maybe 2017 will be my 100 books challenge year ;)

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas - for those that like fairy tales it might be exactly what they need for relaxing read. On the other hand, for those that don't it might be too cheesy. I liked it. It was my book companion during Christmas/NewYearsEve break.

Movies

The Five-Year Engagement - it turned out to be a second-rate piece of work even I do like both of the leading actors Jason Segel and Emily Blunt. There was nothing exciting about this movie, it was sad to watch that is how bad it was. It also wasn't my type of movie. People that love each other but ruin each other lives that is not for me, way too stressful. My mum also didn't like it but we managed to watch it to the end so that we never ever have to see it again.

Love, Rosie - a bit better than The Five-Year Engagement but still really irritating to watch. The same topic, so again not really my type of story, but even more messed up plot. I wasn't alone my husband and my parents also thought that it was tiring to watch. Please people if you love each other then just be together stop being afraid - love is the best this short life has to offer, don't miss it and definitely don't waist time on hurting someone you cannot live without! I wish I could scream it at the leading characters on the very beginning of the movie then I could have watched beautiful love story instead of watching two people pretending that they don't love each other!?

Event


I greeted this year with my husband and friends by playing board games, drinking Pina Colada, and smoking Cohiba cigar. Both cigars and rum were recently brought by my friends from Cuba so the evening were under Cuban theme.

Dear world,
I wish you more peace, more love and more wisdom,
Cheers.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

December summary

Movies

Les Miserables - this movie is phenomenal in my opinion but might be unbearable for those that do not like musicals.

Moulin Rouge! - weird tear squeezer. It is an old movie that I have never seen but I enjoyed it.

Ted - very funny.

Ted 2 - not as funny as Ted.

Star Wars - I am not the biggest fan of Star Wars but it actually was a quite nice movie.

Bridge of spies - a great movie based on a gripping true story of a lawyer James B. Donovan who took a case of a Russian spy Rudolf Abel in 1957 and afterwards in 1962 negotiated exchange of captured American pilot for Abel. I highly recommend.

Travel

I traveled  to Poland for this Christmas break so I had a lot of family time this December.

-
Goodbye year 2015 
You were grant!

Saturday, December 19, 2015

November

Reading

arxiv - I can recommend arxiv web page as a good place to see what is going on in theoretical physics. arxiv has free articles that are pre-prints of articles later on published in scientific journals. Very often they do not differ from published versions and since they are for free most of people use arxiv as a main search engine of newest articles in fields like for example cosmology or particle physics.


news - unfortunately because of what is going on in the world I had to decrease my political ignorance. With my naive dreamer attitude I hope that regardless differences and problems we are facing that we will keep growing as more and more united global society.... I wish all of us more peace, more love, and education.

Movies/Shows

The Graham Norton Show - it is the most funny talk show ever for those that love movies. Just give it a go and you going to get addicted.

Spectre - new James Bond movie. I loved it but I am watching movies like that without any critic, I am just enjoying spy movies "period".

Woman in Gold - good movie, I haven't read the book, so I cannot compare but I found the story very interesting and I think actors did a very good job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
I haven't had as boring November as it might seem from this summary... but then again it is not like I had a time of my life...

This month started horrible for me because I was feeling stressed and depressed but it ended with me feeling calmer and more confident about future.

I think it is because I have been very creative which always make me more emotionally stable and as a consequence more happy.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

October

Books

10 billion by Stephen Emmott - very depressing book. It hasn't received the best reviews and has been very criticized for not being precise enough when it comes to numbers and data that it refers to. I do not have time to play a Sherlock Holmes myself. Therefore, I have decided to assume that the author probably made some mistakes and that he has a bias opinion. He himself admits that he is a bit on a pessimistic site when it comes to a view on a situation of humanity and on what is going to happen next to our planet. Regardless, I think it was very important book, it is loaded with information and there is nothing to like about future author presents but I think it is a healthy alternative to ignorance and non scientific optimism.

Introduction to Quantum Field Theory by Maggiore - I am not going to describe details. It is an academic book meant for two semester course. I read it in 4 days so you can imagine a headache I had in the end. Regardless, I think it is not the best book for self study because it skips a lot of details.


Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - very cool book. I am not really a geek and I loved it, I cannot imagine how much geeks love it. This book is a science fiction, fantasy and adventure in one. It is about growing up, about how our world could be in 30 years. It is full of action book that go through enormous amount of references to 80s. Geeks were born in 70s this is a must read for you!

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow - I really enjoyed this book. Nicely written book about limitations of science and philosophical methods of dealing with it.

Movies/Shows

The Lobster - it is a very very weird movie. I guess one of most surprising and interesting I have ever seen. It is an anti-utopian love story that will shock you, and about some things you might laugh first when you leave the cinema ;)

The Martian - very good movie but unfortunately not nearly as good as the book. I am saying mostly because movie didn't manage to show how dangerous was the situation of Mark left on Mars on his own. In a movie it seemed way too easy. I was entertained but I would say book is a must whereas movie you can watch if you want to but you don't have to. For me Interstellar was better as a movie, but book The Martian is incomparable to anything because it is absolutely fantastic.

The Maze Runner II - number one was a better movie. This one is not as well rounded and balanced because we get so many new characters and so many turns of action that it is hard to care and fill in in their situation. I sill was entertained but I even stronger regret not having read the books.

The Voice - I have lost one day of my life to watch this program from USA, UK and Poland. It is a great show, funny and so pleasant.

Food

Jujube fruit - is kinda like an apple but very little, and has a stone in the middle. It is a first time I have tried this fruit but it stole my heart. Apparently if one lets it dry it will taste like a date.


Travel

Strasbourg, France - I have spend there almost whole month visiting my husband. I was very proud of myself because I managed to limit myself to manageable amount of luggage.


Paris, France - for the long weekend of October which was also the last weekend of the month me and my husband went to Paris. We have spend there four days. These were my last days in France before going back to Denmark. It was wonderful. Paris is great but we also were very lucky and it was warm and sunny.



Versailles, Paris - I also went on a bike trip to see one of the most famous palaces.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

September update

Movies

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - it is a very nice movie. Great music, good sense of humor, handsome men, sweet romance, action and a spy vibe that I love. I definitely recommend it, especially for those that love James Bond or Mission Impossible type of movies.

No escape - The movie is about American Dwyer family in an unnamed Asian country that borders with Vietnam. They find themselves in the middle of a very violent coup where rebels mercilessly attack the city. Rebels attack anyone that do not support them but also they are hunting down foreigners. They fight against the government that allows the foreign corporation investments to take control over main resources of the country. Dwyer's are trying to survive and that is the only theme of the movie.
It was brutal and intense movie. It doesn't have much story or depth, therefore, I think it leaves a lot of space for personal interpretation. Some will find it xenophobic but I despite a lot of shortcomings of the movie found it interesting enough because it made me think about how our complex world runs. I do not recommend it.

Pawn Sacrifice - great movie about Bobby Fisher, his brilliance and his obsessions. It shows power and shortcomings of our mind. It shows a sacrifice and hard work behind success. I really liked it, and I highly recommend it.

Books


The Martian by Andy Weir- it is amazing book and I am waiting like crazy person for the movie adaptation that is coming to theaters this November. This story is technical enough to satisfy nerds like me, but it is a wonderful story of a man with very strong will to survive and of course fantastic sense of humor. I loved it and I recommend it very very much!

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas - I read some negative reviews and I was a bit afraid that I will be disappointed but I am NOT!


Life/Events

I was probably not the only one who haven't slept whole night from 27th September to 28th September to see an eclipse.


I have tried to spend as much time in the garden as possible and enjoy the last warm days of this year. There is just nothing better than being surrounded by peaceful nature while reading a book or an article.


September it is also an Apple Pie time, so together with my mother in law we baked a pie from the apples from her garden. It turned out absolutely delicious.