A Weekend in the Indian Summer
As Murphy's Law predicts: the summer always starts when you have to go back to work. After five weeks of vacation, of which four were wet and grim I am back at work and the sun has decided to come back as well. But then there is: the weekend!
So I decided to spend the majority of the weekend outside enjoying this glorious sunshine!
Time to Rock the Boat
We had a friend coming over to visit us in Alkmaar where we just moved to and she wanted to see the town. Since the weather was great we decided to take one of those canal boat tours, because sitting on a boat in the sun is about as good as it gets.
It's funny how you never really do touristic things in your own country, but since Covid I have changed that also because pretty much the only ones in the touristic places are the Dutch now so they just do the tours in Dutch. This canal boat tour was actually lots of fun, you get to see the city from a different perspective. We did have to go under 22 bridges, some of them were pretty narrow so we had to duck a lot.
But as you can see the sun was glorious and we were happy! After this great boat tour we decided it was time for some beers to soak up the last rays of sunshine before heading home to make our own pizza and drink some more beers...
A Slow Sunday
After a bit too many beers we had a slow Sunday, but since the weather was still holding up we had to go outside of course! We decided to check out a local forest (Heilooerbos) and walk around. It was a really pretty forest!
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and finding a piece of nature can be a bit of a search and usually it gets pretty packed in the weekend. But we had the place to ourselves as everyone was watching Formula 1 (I find it too boring to watch, just people driving in circles...)
So we took our time and had a nice picnic in this grassy area that we found
I would say its a good way to start the new workweek! The good weather is still here for now, but it's supposed to end sometime this week... But at least I charged up on my sunshine before this week!
Hope you had a glorious weekend as well!
1917- The Movie That Takes You to the Trenches
So with my third years (I am a teacher) I am doing some classes on WW I and I was in need of a replacement for All Quiet on the Western Front from 1979. I wanted to check out 1917 to see if it would be worthy replacement and man... 1917 is INSANE! So well made, such amazing cinematography! If you have not seen it yet, go!
The Story
So the story takes place in... 1917, what a surprise. We are nearing the end of the fighting in WW I. This is the year in which the first tanks and planes make their introduction, where soldiers have already suffered a lot at big battles like that of the Somme. It is a time in which some are still the soldiers that were already there in 1914, but also the time of replacements, new recruits that have to find their way on the battlefield. We meet two soldiers, Blake, a new recruit who is not yet completely versed in the ways of trench warfare and Schofield, his seasoned friend.
The two men are charged with a mission to stop an attack of their own forces (and Blake's brother is amongst them) on the Germans, who have set a trap for them. What follows is a harrowing tour past the trenches, over the enemy line, deeply into their territory.
How much of it is true?
Since I am a history teacher this is of course a big deal for me. How much of this is real and how much the imagination of the director (Mendes)?
While the two characters are fictional, the story has some true things in it. The time period in which it plays does have a big German retreat and then attack in it, just like the movie portrays.
[Here the article on the retreat](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-history-behind-1917-movie-180973800/)
So that part is true, also the movie beautifully portrays the confusion the allied soldiers are left with: have they gone? Is it a trap? What should we do?
The story of the message that has to be delivered over enemy lines it not necessarily true and no evidence has been found to support it. But don't let this deter you from the movie, because it really gives an amazing image of trench warfare and what it must have been like to be a soldier during that time. And most of that is because of the amazing cinematography!
What makes this movie so special
When you watch this movie, you feel like you are walking with the two soldiers. Instead of the big overview shots (like Dunkirk, shot with drones) this movie gives a very intimate feel. You feel like the third person on their two men mission. Roger Deakins is the man responsible for this, and he wanted to make the movie appear as if it had been taken in one single shot. So instead of changing the scene you keep going in the story. This does mean an insane amount of planning, as the ones that film have to know exactly where the actors will be going in order to get the shot right. Light was also an issue, as with some scenes they had only the light of flares and had to time those perfectly within the shot.
Anyway, I could not recommend this movie more! Go see it if you haven't already!
August Earnings of a Small Fish
If you ever wonder what common people without huge piles of money make in passive income? Well this is the place to be!! I, teacher, currently not investing any of my own money in crypto will show you what I manage to make each month to enlarge my pile of crypto currencies.
I currently have about $900 in crypto, about $500 of which is my money put into crypto, the rest is earned for free....
July had been good to me with a total earning just shy of $150 dollars. Lets see how August went!
**Hive Blogging: $155** Things are just looking up and up here on Hive! I keep most of my earnings in Hive Power, but I also take some out every month (about 25%)
**Cake DeFi: $51.58** I got into Cake because of their great referral bonus during the olympics: deposit $50 and get $50 worth of their native token DFI. Now you can get $30 worth of DFI when signing up with a referral code: 348795 is mine if you are interested you can go here:https://app.cakedefi.com/ and enter the code when you sign up!
**Noise.Cash: $50.93** Noise Cash is still doing well for me and I am loving it! I take all my profits out and stake them, grow money, grow!
**Read.Cash: $43** Things are warming up for me on read.cash, I am finding some interesting writers and getting more tips! I am still very reliant on the random rewarder though, but will continue to build and hopefully grow. The $43 dollars are money I took out of read.cash, I spent some money giving tips as well.
**Reddit Moons: $31.50** I got 126 moons last month, they go for around $0,25 now. I am still considering selling some. Especially now that the community seems to be kind of dying with too much spam and nonsense...
**Coinbase Earn: $6** There were two programs this month of $3 each. I would recommend everyone to get an account just for the free earn program, free money, yay! Here is my referral: https://www.coinbase.com/join/smolde_q8?src=android-share
**Celsius: $1.76** I use Celsius to stake a lot of my coins to make some more profit. This was the profit from this month (small fish, small profit) but we are ever increasing! If you want to try it this is my referral: https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1196075cd9
**Total for August: $339.77**
Crazy! That is double of what I earned in July! Mind you not all this money went straight in my pockets, quite a lot is parked on Hive and in Reddit moons, but it also grew my portfolio quite a lot!
Looking Forward to September
Work has started again, so I hope I can put in the same amount of time, but it will be a lot busier! I hope to keep steaming ahead on hive, noise and read.cash!
How has your month been? Have you got any tips for things I should try this month?
Weekend of Beer Miles and Beach
Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! I have had a weekend of extremes haha. From extremely tired to pretty energetic, from hungover to happy etc.... and it all started with the Beer Mile....
The Beer Mile.....
So some friends wanted to come visit since we moved and they said oh actually we will be in Alkmaar for a beer mile, why don't you guys join us? Me, thinking oh fun beer drinking and pretending to exercise I can do that, said yes. Little did I know...
When we arrived at the CrossFit that organized this event we saw a lot of very competitive people and a clock and we got worried...
So for those of you that don't know a beer mile is a mile of running and chugging beer. The mile (1.6 km) was divided in 4 laps of 400 meters and prior to starting every 400m you had to chug a can of beer (so 4 beers in total).
You have to finish your beer before you can leave the lit up square and start running. They record your time and the overall fastest wins... more beer! If you puked in between you had to run a penalty lap. So first of all I am pretty out of shape, can't remember the last time I ran at all. But I like drinking beer! Or I did...
Here you can see me already thinking: what the hell have I gotten myself into... But I am proud to say I finished with a time of 13 mins 50 secs and that landed me somewhere in the middle. This was honestly a lot harder than I thought! And the drinking part was way harder than the running part!
The Beach
The next day I woke up both sore and hungover (not a winning combination) and decided a chill day at the beach would make me feel better, so I met up with a friend for a chat and a chill in the sand. The weather wasn't that great (this whole summer hasn't in the Netherlands) but if you drink a cocktail well it feels like summer right?
Decided to stick to the one cocktail, did not want a repeat of the night before!
The rest of the weekend I took it pretty chill, Sunday the weather was horrible so I started a new book (Murakami) and cleaned the house a bit. All ready for a new week!
How was your weekend?
Fantasy Premier League Gameweek 3
Another week and another game week in the Premier League! For those of you not familiar with Fantasy Football: you make your own team consisting of players in the Premier League. You are on a budget of course and so you must make smart choices. You then get points based on how well those players do that week in real life!
So last week was not a great week for me, performing under the average amount of points. And this week.... was way worse! I only earned a meagre 26 points, while the average was 54.... I have gone down quite a bit in my group as well, but the season is still young and anything can happen!
My Gameweek 3
So this was my team this past week
Overall pretty disappointing haha. I was expecting Kane not to perform great, as he has just returned to the group. And the disappointment that is Arsenal at the moment means Saka is not getting the points I want from him either... Last week I put Mount in new and changed Adams in. It's not paying off yet but lets give it some time
So Who Did it Right?
I always like to look at the gameweek winner, see who got the most points.
So this guy got a whopping 126 points this week, yes I know, 100 more than me!! and once again consistently scoring around or above 10 points per player proved to be key. I really like this guys line up btw!
The Week to Come
I won't make my final line up until later this week, but I did have 2 free transfers and I decided to use them, as I am not yet happy with how things are. I kicked Kane out and replaced him with Lukaku who came to the Premier League. And I replaced Adams in the front by Richarlison. We'll see next week how it pans out and who I will let play. I am keeping the back the way it is for now, I expect great things from these people! Gameweek 4 will be a week later of course, due to international matches, so I will have to be patient!
How about you? How was your gameweek?
Solo Travelling on the Isle of Skye
In the summer of 2018 I was going through a phase of unemployment, but I had a little bit of money and thought why not use this time to take a trip? So after seeing my mom in Scotland I decided to drive over to the Isle of Skye, all the way in the west of Scotland for some solo camping and hiking!
I drove over to Dunvegan at the western end of the Isle and settled on a beautiful spot, where I pitched my tent and looked over the water. The sun was even coming through, truly a rare day in Scotland! The unfortunate thing was that it was August and therefore midge season. If you don't know what midges are then you are a lucky person. These tiny tiny flies get through almost anything, sit on you by the hundreds and proceed to sting you relentlessly. They are worse than mosquitos! The only things that help are rain, wind or covering yourself in a mosquito net...
The next day the weather was decidedly more Scottish (aka rainy) but I decided that one must push through these uncomfortable things in life and I set out to climb a route over the McLeods Tables, supposedly a lovely route.
The scenery was amazing, despite the rain. After about 24km I was happy to be back in the car though as I was soaked through and my feet sore. I warmed myself up with a lovely cup of tea in the tent and then managed to pass out and sleep a solid two hours haha.
The next morning I saw the weather for Dunvegan was still pretty horrible, while in the southern parts better weather was predicted. So I packed everything up and heading for Glenbrittle in the Cuilin mountains. I stopped over by the Fairy Pools and did a hike there that left me only slightly wet with some showers at the end. At the beginning of the fairy pools there were quite some tourists, but you leave more behind with every step you take. Some even wore flipflops, how anyone would think that is a great choice for shoes in Scotland in the mountains will always be a mystery to me!
I got to the campsite in Glenbrittle where I talked to some guys who were walking the isle of Skye fully packed with gear, pretty impressive! The next day I decided to go into the mountains to visit Loch Coir' a 'Ghrunnda (of which I still don't know how to pronounce it) It was a bit difficult to find my way using the guide book I had. Particularly when it said to turn left at ' a funnily shaped boulder' when there were literally hundreds of boulders. But I managed to find my way and had this beautiful view as a reward!
The next day I decided I needed company, internet and a breakfast that was not a heated tin of mushroom soup so headed to Portree for an insane breakfast: full English of course! Then I hurried over to the Old Man of Storr because low and behold! The sun had come out!
The Old Man of Storr is a protruding rock that offers a nice hike as well around it and beautiful views on a clear day (though those are rare)
I have to admit that the views over the Isle of Skye are amongst some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. That night I went back to Portree for some music and drinks in a local pub. Managed to hitch a ride back to the campsite, only to miss the campsite in the dark and making it a big walk home haha. The next morning not only had it become very stormy so I spent more time with my tent stuck to my face than actually sleeping. The midges had also gotten to me to the point where my hands resembled bread with raisins in them instead of hands. I decided it was time to return to a midge free world.... However, I will definitely be back one day as Skye is amazing! So much beauty and such amazing landscape!
Final Weekend of the Vacation
Man what a week. I started work again Monday (and a new job at that) and I am poooped. Didn't have time until now to post something about last weekend, my last vacation weekend!
The Vacation
Even though I am blessed with long summer vacations (I work in education), they always seem to fly by and this one was no different with a move, a festival and a camping trip packed in.
So last weekend it was here: the final weekend of the vacation. I went to my new job Friday for a meet and greet and everybody seemed really nice. But I was determined to enjoy my last weekend of vacation!
#### Going to the Fair
So we decided on Saturday to go to the 'Kermis' or fun fair.
Now one thing you need to know about me: I am scared of a lot of things haha. My fair of heights and of airplanes seem to always come brilliantly together with these things, so there are very few rides that I go in haha. But the little rollercoaster on the fair was ok for me.
Then my partner wanted to go in this monster with me:
Let me tell you, that was a hell no for me haha. But we had fun, ate some sugary snacks, went on some tame rides and in general had a good time!
Making Friends
Then it was time for operation making new friends. Since we moved about a month ago we are a bit well.... without friends I guess. We have never lived in this area before and also don't know anyone. As I do very poorly with being lonely and mopey I decided action was required! So we found a social group on facebook for people living in our area and started putting up posts to see if people wanted to hang out. So far so good, we already met five people!
Last Saturday we had some drinks with some people and on our walk back got treated with a nice sunset too!
The next day it was Sunday and all our active plans quickly got changed for a chill day as the weather was horrific. I mean small rivers running down the street it was that rainy. Secretly I was happy for a chill day as my work was starting the next day. So I stretched out on the couch with my book, a wonderful way to end my vacation I think.
What about you? How was your weekend?
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 2
Hi everyone!
How has gameweek 2 gone for you? For those of you just tuning in, Fantasy Premier League means forming your own team of players from the Premier League and gathering points as the matches are played and your player achieve things (or not) on the football field. If you're interested you can check it out here: https://fantasy.premierleague.com/
My gameweek 2
I'm not going to lie, my gameweek 2 was pretty lousy haha. I only got 41 points, well below the average of 56
Leicester losing pretty big numbers obviously was not great for me personally, but my mid field also produced a lot less points than last week. Kane was also still hardly playing so I went for different strikers. I am seriously considering getting Lukaku instead of Kane haha. So it was a disappointing week, but ah well I am still learning. I guess I have to be patient!
So who did it right?
I always enjoy looking up the people who did have a lot more success than I did and this weeks' king of the gameweek was insane! He got a whopping 142 points (yes that is 100!! more than me) and this was his team:
Love the choices made here, especially James and Antonio really paid off for this person this week!
Looking forward to gameweek 3
I think I will make some changes for next week, but will wait until Friday, you never know what will happen. I think I will put Kane in (depending on the news of course) and doubting if I should take out Cucho or Hojberg to accomodate him.
How did your gameweek 2 go?
When Kids Don't Listen I Use Memes...
I am quite new to the whole meme-making thing, but I got really into it last year. I am a teacher and like everyone I had to deal with working from home and let me tell you: it is even harder to make kids do their homework at home than at school! I grew more and more frustrated with time and it was time for a solution...
I started out sending reminders to all the kids that didn't hand in their homework. But the response I got was pretty non-existent and it costed me a lot of time...
So I was looking for a way to motivate kids to hand in their homework and since whining or being grumpy usually doesn't work (and doesn't make me happy) I decided to look for a more positive way to get them to make their homework: I would send them reminders with cat memes...
I know this sounds ridiculous but it worked! Instead of being grumpy that I had disturbed them many kids laughed and even sent their own memes back, along with their homework!
As I teach history I also tried to make some historical ones to keep to the theme like these ones:
I used this for the third years who were working on the Soviet Union.
When working on the Middle Ages I came across this picture and decided to use it
I can really recommend using memes to get things done, especially when working online as people care a lot less about getting things done in time! It made the general atmosphere better and I got a record amount of homework handed in!
A Weekend of Cycling and Spa
So as I promised in my post since moving to another part of the Netherlands I would keep you all up to date with exploring my new province! And after this weekend I have plenty to update you guys on!
A Day at the Beach
We decided to start the weekend on Thursday with a nice ride through the dunes with a good friend who happened to be in the neighborhood. Alkmaar (the new hometown) is about 10km from the dunes and the beach, but we decided to make it a 50km cycle ride.
As you might be able to see from our happy faces it was a beautiful day and felt fit and strong, we all felt pretty energized still at the end, despite just having cycled 50 km. (I would later come to regret how fit I felt here as it led to gross over confidence later in the weekend....)
Especially the route around Bergen aan Zee is beautiful, if you ever find yourself in the area.
Off Camping
The day after our ride we decided to go camping near Medemblik, an old harbor town at the IJsselmeer, a lake that used to be a sea before the Dutch decided land was much more useful than water. We cycled 40 km to our campsite and I went in feeling confident from our ride the day before. But regretted my confidence quickly: it was one of those days were you just can't seem to get comfortable... My but was sore, I was hungry, started to get more and more grumpy and well.. I just wanted it to be over haha. Luckily after 40km of struggle it was over and the reward was great....
We got a beautiful spot on a super green campsite and after eating a nice meal I could feel grumpy me disappear and sleepy me appear haha.
Castle Time!
The next day neither of us felt like being on our bikes for long, so we decided to just do the 5 km cycle to the town of Medemblik. This medieval harbor town was a lot of fun, it was windy so we got to watch all the sailboats go by, walked around town and visited the local castle! As a historian there are few things I enjoy more than castles and this one was nice!
The Radboud castle was the home of the counts of Holland who were sent there to keep an eye on the West-Frisians, known to be trouble makers that did not like the Hollanders one bit!
We had a great day and managed to get some rest to get ready for the next leg: going home...
Oh Wind....
The next day we woke up ready to cycle the 40km back home when we realized that it was pretty windy... and then realized the wind was going to be straight headwind for all of those 40 km....
Good thing is we got a rest for the legs the day before, so actually it wasn't too bad in the end and the route was really pleasant going through the Leeghwater area: the earliest part of the Netherlands drained of water already in the 17th century.
That means windmills of course, as those were used to drain the land and keep it dry. Nowadays these were turned into houses: how cute would it be to live in a windmill?!
The Spa
We decided that the last day before the end of Matt's vacation (I still have another week yay!) we should chill in the spa. It was a 25km cycle to get there and since it was remote and we don't have a car we climbed back on our steel friends. The way over went very smooth and before long we were chilling in a fortress that had been converted to a spa. How cool is that!?
It was just what I needed and I spent hours in the water turning my fingertips into little raisins! Unfortunately all good things must end and we headed home after about 6 hours of bliss.... Only to be having a horrific headwind for 25km....
Let me tell you, not the perfect ending to a spa day.
Anyway, we had a great weekend cycling about 200 km, but having chill moments as well and having explored some really nice parts of our new province!
Fantasy Football League: Gameweek 1
I decided this football season to join the one of the most popular platforms for football fans: The Fantasy Football League (FFL) which currently has more than 7 million people involved online!
What is FFL?
Well the concept is pretty simple, you, the manager of your own fantasy football team are given 100 million pounds to pick players from the Premier League in your team. These players gather points based on how well they do in the real-time matches. You must make a squad of 15 players (11 playing and 4 subs), decide who you will put in the field, who the captain is and then you'll have to wait to see how they perform. What I like is that you can't pick too many from the same team so it forces you to be creative. I participate here: https://fantasy.premierleague.com/ if you're interested in having a look.
Gameweek 1
As this was my first try I was pretty curious how the first week would go. I ended up with 71 points, landing me a spot somewhere in the middle (phew I didn't get completely humiliated!)
I made a couple of mistakes of course:
I hadn't checked the injuries or fitness, so I put two players in my field that didn't play and therefore could not get me any points...
I had forgotten to name a captain... oops... so I missed out on those points
But otherwise I was pretty happy. It was all a learning curve, so I made some adaptations for next week, we'll see how they pan out.
The Best Gameweek 1 Team
So of course I was curious, what do people do that do really well? So I looked up the king of the gameweek and this was his team:
I think the main thing is that he scored pretty high with all his players, while mine were a bit all over the shop. Ah well, every week you learn!
Looking Forward to Gameweek 2
I can totally see how people get really hooked on this, I am already looking forward to Gameweek 2 haha. For next week I think I'm going for this:
Are you playing as well? How did you gameweek go?
As Crypto Soars: Are You Taking Profits?
Crypto has been booming so far in August and many portfolio's that turned red after May are now turning green again. This of course brings the age old question: **What are you going to do with your earnings?**
I'd like to put a couple of options in a row for you and tell you what I am deciding to do. This of course is no financial advice and always do your own research! I would love to also hear what you are planning to do!
**Take profit and put it in fiat**: You probably know the saying: profit is only real when you convert it into actual fiat, otherwise it's just possible gains. As people see their portfolios in the green some choose to cash out into fiat. There are different methods some people go for percentages of profit that they take out, while others take out their initial input and continue on with the profits.
You can always decide of course that when the prices go down you want to use some of that fiat to buy in more. I am currently not cashing out into fiat though. Why? Because my interest on fiat is absolutely 0.... In some countries they even have negative interest on savings now. It could be that for you it makes sense to get it in fiat, maybe you want to invest in something else or make a purchase or you still get interest on your fiat money (you lucky monkey!), but for me it is not right at this time.
**You have diamond hands** Some people have decided they are not going to sell their crypto. Ever. They are the hodlers for life and will continue to buy more crypto and hold whatever they have. That is fine too of course, nobody is forcing you to sell if you don't want to! Most people who decide to keep their crypto do sometimes sell at a high to buy back at a lower point, to increase the amount they hold. I have a part of my portfolio that I mean to hold for a long time. I have put it on Celsius for staking to get rewards on. I don't plan on selling these any time soon. For me these holdings are mostly BTC and ETH.
**Sell some in stablecoin** As profits soar you could sell some of your coins but not exchange them for fiat but for stablecoins instead. These are coins that are pegged to fiat money, like USDC which is pegged to the dollar. The advantages: they generally don't crash and you can stake them for profits. They are kind of an in between to cashing out in fiat. I have decided to put some profits in stablecoins as they give a bit more security than crypto, but unlike fiat I do receive interest on them! The only downside is that not all stablecoins are very transparent about what they do and there is a risk they will fail, while with fiat that risk is a looooot smaller. I have opted for this method with some of my money to earn some interest and then later make the decision either to buy back in at a lower price or to take some as profits and turn it into fiat
Closing Remarks
I hope this has given you a bit of an idea about what the options are. Whatever you decide to do, make a plan and stick to that. You don't want to be crying 2/6/21 months from now wishing you had done things differently.
I am really curious to hear what your plan is with your profits! Let me know in the comments!
Pembrokeshire: Stunning Coast of Wales
In the summer of 2019 we took our van to Wales to roam around for 4 weeks. When we got to Pembrokeshire we were flabbergasted: a beautiful piece of coast line in Wales that had everything you could ever want: sun (very rare in Wales), sea, castles, outdoor activities and quaint villages. We fell in love!
It was easy to find places to park up the van for free, like the picture above shows where we had an amazing view of the sea and the fields. We decided to spend the next day driving the sometimes very narrow roads around the peninsula and enjoy some beaches. As you can see even though it was the middle of the summer holiday it was pretty quiet still! It might have to do with the ominous clouds haha, but we stayed dry that day!
The next day we felt a lot more adventurous and headed over to St. Anne's Head for some coasteering. Coasteering is basically playing around with cliffs and sea, you get in a wetsuit, put a helmet on and jump off cliffs, swim around, climb over rocks etc. Loads of fun! This is me jumping off a 17 meter cliff. Let me tell you I had to gather some courage to make this jump, but going back over the steep rock seemed even less inviting so I took the jump!
This shows how beautiful and rugged the coast line is there:
The next day we were a bit sore and tired haha, so decided to go to the town of Pembroke to see the castle. This castle was used in the Tudor time and they give a really nice free tour of the grounds! The people volunteering there are very knowledgeable and friendly, so would really recommend giving it a visit. They also have shows on sometimes with firing old arms and sword fighting, also fun!
After a rainy day spend in the van, we were blessed with two dry days so on the second day, when we knew the rock would be dry we decided to go for a long dream of ours: sea cliff climbing! It was quite a way to walk with all the gear (ropes, harness, helmets etc) but we got to a beautiful spot. The nice thing about sea cliff climbing is you start at the top and abseil down, so you are toproping (already attached to the rope at the top) instead of having to place gear and taking the rope with you from the bottom.
It was an amazing route and plenty of sun as you can see! Would definitely come climbing there again as it was ace! As the bad weather was coming to south wales we decided to conclude our visit to Pembrokeshire and head to Snowdonia, I will make another post about that sometime as it deserves its own post!
Why Don't We Save the Planet We Are Destroying?
So this week the IPCC Climate Report was released giving off a Code Red for humanity. The interesting thing is that the report didn't tell us anything we didn't know. It's main conclusions hadn't changed since the last report, the calculations just got more precise. It described a bleak future: if we met all our climate goals we might just be able to keep it to heating up the planet with 1.5 degree Celsius. But hotter it will get. Since none of this is new, as neither is scientists warning us for the grave consequences of what we are doing to the planet, then the question is: Why are we not acting upon that information?
It seems mind boggling that while we live the results of our pollution every day: forest fires in southern Europe and California, big flooding in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands for example, yet we are not willing to do enough to turn the tide.
The Report
So a little bit about the picture of the future that the IPCC Report paints:
- Increasing heatwaves and forest fires
- Melting polar ice meaning rising sea levels, threatening those who live by the coast
- Warmer oceans that become more acidic, meaning less life in them
- Droughts at some places, heavy rainfall at others, meaning crops will struggle
We will arrive at 1,5 degrees warmer, the question is just when? If we carry on like we do now, we could hit it already in 2040. The more we cut our emissions drastically now the longer it will take us to get there.
So Why Are We Not Acting?
The more I read about it the more incredulous it seems that we are not doing enough! So I've tried to come up with some reasons of why people are not acting upon this very bleak future picture:
1. **It is a long-term problem that requires short-term sacrifices** and boy, we suck at those. Giving up things we enjoy now (driving in our cars, using plastic bags, cheap electricity etc) for some unforeseeable future when we will be long dead is just really difficult for humans. Ignoring the problem therefore brings a lot of short-term pleasure, even if they may ruin the planet for our great-grand children. For not everyone the problems associated with climate change are visible either, making it seem even less worth it to change.
2. **It is a complicated problem that accelerates** One cigarette won't kill you right? But smoking 20 years every day will have negative health consequences. That knowledge though won't stop you from smoking that one cigarette. Climate change hasn't been visible to a lot of people for long yet, meaning we are already at the point where the years of smoking have deteriorated someone's health. The planet is already sick now and we have missed the best window to act upon it...
3. **People suck with abstract concepts** Say you have a noisy neighbor. That is pretty annoying and you would want to do something about it soon right? This is something that directly affects your daily life! Global warming and it's consequences however don't disturb you the way that noisy neighbor does. They are often quite far removed from you, making them less important to your busy brain...
So where do we go from here?
Will this upcoming Climate Summit in Glasgow be like all the others again? Leaders of the world make big promises, shake hands, smile and then... break these promises? It is up to us, citizens of the world, to elect leaders who will fulfill their promises and keep them to their promises, forcing them to take action. Because even though we cannot save the world by ourselves, we can do it with collective action from all the citizens! What do you think? What suggestions do you have that could help us mitigate this problem?
Thanks a lot to @CoquiCoin for the sponsorship, it is greatly appreciated! I feel like August is the month I finally got my head wrapped around Read.Cash as things are picking up here! Will keep interacting on this great platform!
Our Very Own Festival
When the pandemic hit last year we were very disappointed as a group of friends that there would be no festivals. We had been going to festivals together for years! When it dawned on us: could we organize our own festival, compliant with the rules, just for us as friends? The answer was yes and just now we had edition two as this pandemic ruined yet another festival summer! Welcome to Feest!val 2021!
What On Earth Is This?
So it turns out that saying you will organize a festival is a bit easier than doing it, but we have come a long way and have managed to make a nice festival! We have one member of our friend group whose parents live in the middle of nowhere and own a plot of land we could use! We camp in the back and party in the front of the field. Last year we only had our group (12 people) but this year as the measures eased a little bit we were able to have 30 people (all had at least 1 vaccine and everyone got tested before arriving). We cook the food ourselves, every day has a different cooking team and anyone can organize an activity they would like to have at the festival.
When you walk in the first thing you see is the program for the day, anyone is free to add something to it, to organize it or whatever they like! This was the Saturday program: two people played country music, the neighbors came by for a visit, people could make their own festival band, play beach volleybal, we had a duo plating a song and a DJ at night. Plenty to choose from!
This is our Main Stage: as you can see we even made a logo (in the middle) this year. We rent the tent and floor from a company, the lamps are ours and all the decor comes out of our houses or from the second hand shop. This is where we chill during the day when it's hot and party at night to music!
This is the entrance to the magic forest, we made a lot of blacklight decor and hung all sorts of lamps in a bit of forest so you can walk through it at night. Our favorite festival (Psyfi) also has something like this so we decided to make our own! We have put a spot on the big tree next to it, making it look like this:
We also had a fire of course and this is usually where everybody ended the night, staring into the fire or having conversations sometimes until dawn!
Night was the prettiest time at the festival, with the lights showing. This is a rare picture of the terrain being empty!
I hope we keep our own little festival for many years to come, it was amazing sharing this with friends and being able to have a festival in a responsible way, despite of a pandemic. I think it shows that with a lot of dedication and time anyone can make something beautiful out of a shitty situation! So I am hoping for a Feest!val 2022 edition!
Movie Review: Fatherhood- Kevin Hart Shows a Different Side
You might know Kevin Hart as a stand-up comedian or as the host of many award shows. In his latest movie Fatherhood, Hart shows that he has much more he is capable of then just being funny!
The Story- No Spoilers
So this movie managed to make me cry within 5 minutes, I think this must be a record. It starts out super sad with Matt's (Kevin Hart) wife dying at the birth of their little girl Maddy. Completely unexpected Matt is now a single father, who not only has to deal with grief, but also bringing up a baby and navigating what he thinks is the best life for them. I have to say that after the first 5 minutes I though: I sure hope this movie becomes a bit more than just sad. But it does! Don't you worry!
Helping Matt are his parents in-law (who often disagree with him) and his buddies who can help teach Maddy how to play poker. Things really come to a boil when Matt gets a great career opportunity that clashes with taking care of Maddy and a new love might be on the horizon.
So should you watch this movie?
I would say yes, go watch it!
You can find it on Netflix. What I liked about this movie where how Hart shows a new side to him, capable of playing a serious role but still making you laugh from time to time because, well he is a pretty funny guy. I also like how the movie shows that parenthood is outright messy and difficult. You will never know what the right choice is, and you will get it wrong from time to time. The movie shows that that doesn't make us bad, just human.
Though at times the movie could use a bit more pace and momentum, I still think it's a good watch! Have any of you seen it yet? What did you think?
CakeDeFi: Bonus to Match Input
Last week I read this article on PublishOx about Cake DeFi. It stated that you would currently (till August 13) get a $50 sign up bonus for a $50 deposit. That is a pretty amazing return and for once a sign up bonus that is achievable for a small fish like me, that doesn't have thousands of dollars to deposit. So I decided to check it out! It was worth it and I wanted to share my experience with you! https://www.publish0x.com/cryptonators-investments/olympic-bake-off-at-cakedefi-get-50-dollars-in-dfi-tokens-xdgnexm?a=5xe7xNOa7r&tid=Twitter
What is Cake DeFi?
Cake is a platform where you can earn money with your crypto. You can do so by staking, lending, providing liquidity or putting assets in the freezer. They also work with their own token: DFI which you can also stake at even higher returns (currently a whopping 100.7% APY). Find out more on their website https://www.cakedefi.com/
What is the Sign-Up Bonus?
Because of the Olympics they currently have the sign-up bonus of deposit $50 worth of any crypto and get $50 worth of DFI as a bonus!
**It is important that you use a referral code, otherwise your bonus will only be $25!** If you are still looking for a referral, feel free to use mine: https://app.cakedefi.com/#?ref=348795 (code: 348795). After making a profile you have to do a KYC verification (mine went through in about 12 hours, much better than some other crypto platforms) and then do the deposit of $50 in any available crypto. I then received my bonus within minutes.
The DFI you receive is then placed in the freezer for 6 months, but it earns rewards every 12 hours and auto-compounds those, making your profits even higher! You can withdraw your original deposit in the meantime though.
Conclusions
I am pretty chuffed having tried this: doubling your money in minutes is pretty nice! I found the site easy to use and I received my bonus within minutes. Do remember to always do your own research, I do not give financial advice!
Have any of you tried Cake DeFi yet?
Thanks @renren16 for the sponsorship, it is much appreciated! Can't wait to add more value to this platform and grow on read.cash. Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting my articles!
New Start: Moving to a New City
I have told you all in previous posts that I have switched jobs and with that switch also came a move! After a looooong search for a house we finally found a new place in Alkmaar and moved last weekend!
Our Lives in Boxes
It is funny how much more stuff you acquire quickly. Me and my partner are both cheapskates haha so most of the stuff we own we got for free from friends or for cheap at the second hand shop. All nice and well until you have to pack all your crap! We rented a big VW Crafter (I love driving big vans!) and luckily all our stuff fitted in one go.
We had driven in the morning with a small car to pick up the keys and drop of some of the most fragile plants (I am a huge plant fan and we have lots haha). The result: my 2 meter tall partner with a giant tropical plant in a C1. I had to laugh for two minutes before I could get in the car to drive!
And so we said goodbye to Leiden, I lived there for 9 years (how time flies!) but I feel it is the right time to move on, the place got too busy and expensive for us.
Moving All the Boxes Back in Again
After an hour in the car we got to our new home in Alkmaar (cheese capital of the Netherlands!) I'll post some more on our new town some other time. And funny thing is that moving in went a lot quicker then moving out! But the unpacking...... was a lot of work. so not everything is neat and happy but these pictures should give you some impression of the new place.
We have got two bedrooms and bathroom and toilet of course, but they are still a work in progress haha. The bedroom mostly because we ordered a wardrobe that hasn't arrived yet, so there are clothes everywhere. But today we finally got connected to the internet and we hung up some pictures so it's starting to get homely.
Thanks everyone for the support in the whole frustrating process of getting a house! I'll let you guys know more about the new hometown and area around it soon!
July Earnings of a Small Fish
Are you also wondering if your small pile of hard earned crypto's can be increased without doing too much for it? Don't worry it's not just the big fish in the sea and the crypto whales that can accumulate free coins!
July was a pretty good month
Even though I have been super busy (quit my job and moving tomorrow) I have had quite a good month in July. The markets picked up again leaving me back in the green with my portfolio (yay!) and I have decided to take on some new ways of making money that have been quite successful!
**Hive blogging: $49.51** A bit more than last month so pretty happy with that! I have mainly been diving into the POB community and that has given me over 50 POB tokens, which I am staking now! I really enjoy this platform a lot!
**Celsius $40.85** I got a referral bonus (yay!) so got a lot more from Celsius this month. I know this won't be like this every month, but I am happy with Celsius and slowly accumulating here. If you want to try it you can use my referral: https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1196075cd9
**Noise.Cash $26.90** I am loving Noise.Cash so far! I found a nice group to discuss football with and can make a decent amount of money from it! Will definitely continue to use this!
**Reddit Moons: $18.66** I got 81 moons this month, which is the current market would be worth just under $20, though it has been going up quite a bit. I am starting to consider selling some, the price is good and I am starting to sit on a nice amount of money. I can't seem to make up my mind though, any thoughts?
**Coinbase Earn $7** They had three different projects on this month (the Graph only for $1 haha). I put all my earnings from Coinbase Earn in Polygon as I am quite bullish on that. If you want to check Coinbase out here is my referral: https://www.coinbase.com/join/smolde_q8?src=android-share
**Read.Cash $3.61** I have been having some more problems with Noise.Cash's big brother Read.Cash. I have found a sponsor now and a bit more is happening, but not much still. I also don't love the interface as much as I do with Hives, but I keep at it! I really notice that you get a lot more output when you put more time in, so hopefully after the move that can happen!
**Publish Ox $2.23** I made a bit more, but wasn't that active as I was very busy this month. Hopefully will have more time for this in August
**Betfury: $0.09** Not really getting anywhere with this, but apparently still not ready to give it up.... Giving it till October to prove itself or it will get cut. If you're interested go here: https://betfury.io/?r=6087d788143ea74a39144327
Total July Earning: $148.85!!!
Needless to say I am super stoked as previous month was just under $70! So I have more than doubled this month! The Celsius thing being a one time thing of course, but I feel like I am on track! Together with finally having my portfolio back in the green I am pretty happy.
**Goals for August:** Keep going on Hive and being keeping active on POB. Keep Noise.Cash going the way it is now, hopefully increasing my following. I really hope to invest more time in Read.Cash I think it has a good potential. And I am looking to put some money in Cake DeFi to grab the $50 bonus for signing up, just waiting on the KYC right now.
So small fishes in the sea, don't be discouraged by all the big fishes, I hope I have shown you that you can make free crypto through interaction and hodling. Best of luck to you all for the month of August!
The Awesome Beauty of Zion National Park [USA]
For those of you that like me love vacationing in a spot of jaw-dropping beauty and like to be active I would like to share one of my all-time favorites with you: Zion National Park in Utah USA.
I am a mountain fanatic born in a completely flat country (Netherlands). Therefore I try to go into the mountains as often as possible and would like to share some of my trips with you! All pictures are made by myself.
Zion
Zion is a canyon cutout from sandstone and an oasis of plants and animals in the otherwise quite dry state of Utah. What makes Zion so special is the different colors going on: the soft reddish of the sandstone, the vibrant green of the plants and the burst of colors at sunset. Best thing is you can camp in Zion so no need to spend time getting there, just get up and go. Zion is a heaven for climbers, but also people that love hiking will find a lot of fun here.
As you can see the river has cut a deep canyon in the mountains. If you are up for a bit of a rest you can walk in the valley by the river, but the best views are from the top of course.
Angel's Landing
The most well-known hike of Zion is Angel's Landing, so called because well when you get to the top you pretty much feel like you landed on earth's sweet spot. It is important to realize though that Angel's Landing is not for the faint of heart and requires decent fitness. To get to the top of the cliff you must make a steep ascent next to often large drops. We went with three girls (me and two trail friends) two of us pushed on, one decided to turn back because of the exposure.
Here you can see it is a pretty steep start to the route, but this path is well-maintained and well used. Even if you don't want to do the last scary bit this path is worth getting the view over the canyon.
This is the final part to the landing. As you can maybe see it does have some iron chains that you can hold, you are however not secured to the rock. But man does it pay off to get there! You might be able to tell from my happy face haha I felt pretty on top of the world!
It takes about 4 hours to get up and back from the start of the trail. Make sure to bring enough water: it gets dry and hot. Also really keep an eye out for the weather, you do not want to be caught out by a thunderstorm on a super exposed rock! The National Park service gives an overview of other possible hikes as well here:https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/zion-canyon-trail-descriptions.htm I would recommend camping in the park, the campsites are well maintained, bring you close to the action and you get to sleep in this amazing nature!
Movie The Glass Castle- 2017 [EN} Review
As the summer weather has turned into Dutch summer (rain) again I now have more time to sit down and watch some movies. While I was flipping through the large pile of movies I came across The Glass Castle and man was I happy I did because it is great! A story that can be both sad, empowering and uplifting!
The Story: No Spoilers
The Glass Castle is a film made after the autobiographic book written by Jeannette Walls who tells the story of her childhood in a dysfunctional family who follows an anything but ordinary path. With her family with two more sisters and a brother they lead a nomad lifestyle: refusing to confirm to societal norms and bouncing from temporary house to house. Though you might now think of a glorious existence as nomads, nothing is less true as the family struggles with poverty and the father's alcoholism.
So why is this movie good?
You might think well that sounds very depressing: a movie about a poor family and a drunk dad. However, not all is as it seems with this movie. Jeannette Walls manages to tell a sad story but also filled with inspiration and hope. With trusting yourself and it being ok not to do what everyone else does. The movie beautifully shows that the father was also shaped by forces outside of him, and even though he makes some horrible parenting decisions the love for his children stands out.
Woody Harrelson plays and incredible role with the father as part hillbilly drunk and part smart engineer with amazing ideas. After watching the movie I was still torn between empathy and dislike for father Walls. I would really recommend to watch this movie!
Goodbyes and New Beginnings
This past week and the one to come has been one of endings and new beginnings. I decided around May to look for a new job (I'm a teacher in high school) as my current school had a lot of insecurities and my job was increasingly in danger. Last Friday the time was there: I was saying goodbye to my school at the end of the schoolyear! I am happy with the new school that I have found, which will also include a move to a different province. So for me this is a time of goodbyes and also of new beginnings.
**Choosing What is Right for You**
It was hard to make the decision to leave: a new place to work and live means a lot of unknowns. But I am very happy I made the decision. My work was getting increasingly more insecure and toxic. Since a new boss many people have been forced to leave in a not so nice way, added to that the stress of teaching in corona times and I could see myself and my colleagues becoming increasingly unhappy at this place. So I decided to leave, and it was not just me 32 people out of a staff of 100 teacher have decided to leave this school.
Now that I have been away even for just a couple of days I can already feel the stress seeping out of my body slowly... bar for the fact that I still need to get paid for an extra job I did and it seems they are trying to prevent me from getting it. Anyway bottom line is: leave toxic work places you health and happiness is more important than a job!
**Saying Goodbye to the Kids**
The hardest thing for me was saying goodbye to my kids. I know I am leaving them in a vulnerable spot, in a school with a lot of turmoil and I've been teaching the same classes for three years in a row. Mostly I will miss my tutor class, who I have been a tutor of for two years. I know all the kids and their parents really well. So we decided to have a good end to things and go for a fun outing. I asked the kids what they wanted to do and they chose to go trampoline jumping
It turns out when you are 30 you are not as flexible and fit anymore as these 15 year old's haha! After that we went for a round in the party bus
It was a good way to end two fun years together.
**New Beginnings**
So after the goodbyes it will be time for new beginnings soon. We have finally found a place to live (which was hell in the current housing market) and will get the keys Monday! Tuesday will be moving day and then I will have three weeks of vacation left before I start my new job. I am very excited and a bit nervous to start all over again at a new school, but I get really good vibes from my new place and looking forward to a new area to live in after 9 years in Leiden. Bring on the adventure!
Cultured Meat and Vertical Farming: Science Fiction or the Future?
As it becomes clear that we are asking too much of our planet to produce the food we need for our ever growing populations, we have to start coming up with smart solutions. It is estimated that by the year 2050 we will need to feed 9 billion people on the planet. Each eating about 1.4kgs of food a day... Yeap that is a lot of food!
The growing size of our population means that lately governments have upped the scale of production: giant farms require less staff and bio industry means a lot more meat can be produced in shorter amount of time.https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/
Why the current industry is not going to work in the future
Currently these large scale farms manage to feed a lot of people. However, they deplete the planet, are vulnerable for diseases because of mono-cultures and are animal unfriendly. As the human population keeps growing this industry is also reaching its end capacity and with no more land to turn into farms we are reaching the end of this mass production industry. The main problem with the meat industry is the sharp rise of demand for meat and the fact that in order to meet this demand all these chickens, cows and pigs also need to be fed and watered, making meat and dairy products taking up a lot more products that need to be grown on.... farms. (Starting to see the cycle here?)
So what solutions are currently being thought of?
Besides the growing call for people to eat more locally, eat less meat, become plant-based eaters or growing your own food it is clear that something needs to change on the large scale. Currently there are two serious options being looked at by scientists:
1. **Vertical Farming** The idea of vertical farming is that you can grow a lot more if you use the space well. Instead of spreading out on the ground, why not go up into the sky?
Many countries are in fact already experimenting with this. Vertical farming uses LED lights and a certain atmosphere for humidity, using less energy and space than traditional greenhouse farming. The main challenges are how to provide the perfect climate (temperature and humidity) over the whole space, giving each plant equal chances to grow. Another one currently is still the amount of electricity used, since it doesn't use the biggest energy source of all: the sun.
2. **Cultured Meat** You may remember that beef patty made of cow cells a few years ago. But they have not stopped there. The idea being if you can grow burgers in a lab, you would save a lot of animal abuse and food/space to rear the animals. As the estimate is that our global demand for meat will increase by 2/3rds in the next 40 years, you can see why this is a potential outcome.
Some of the issues? Well it is still very expensive to make cultured meat. The solution for that would be doing it on a larger scale as that would bring down the costs. Another major problem lies in the meat itself: our steak on our plates is not just meat, but also muscles, fat, hormones etc. Currently scientists have a real challenge in trying to replicate all of these in creating cultured meat.
What about you?
The main question of course is: would people buy and consume these things? Will we change our behavior and eat differently? Will countries fund these projects? I look forward to hearing what you think!
A Weekend of Celebration
Hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was not too shabby as it was my birthday! I am one of those people who look forward to my birthday 364 days of the year. It doesn't seem to get any less exciting with age either haha. I love my birthday: perfect day to get everyone together, have some drinks, some laughs and some presents: what is not to love?!
The Best Present
So some of you may know that we've been having a really hard time finding a house. In short: we both have new jobs in a different area starting august, but the housing market is super difficult and homelessness was looming. So on this lovely day of my birthday I also received the best present I have ever had: we got a call from a renter that I saw a house with last week that he chose us! **we have a house!**
Seriously best news of the year and of course we had some bubbles to celebrate (the birthday bubbles got renamed as house bubbles) I can just feel the stress starting to leave my body and I have finally been sleeping well for the first time in weeks!
The Party
So my birthday was on a Thursday, not the best party day (but weekend birthday starting next year!) So we decided to just go out for dinner with the two of us. Sitting outside at a nice restaurant near a lake close to home. As you can see the food was yummy and it was sunny!
The party itself was on Saturday. Because of the pandemic we decided to have an outside birthday, which is what I usually have as July is pretty good weather normally. But now I had rain! There was some sun that day, but also pretty heavy showers in between. But when life hands you lemons... You bring a tarp to your party and make it work!
I have to say I was impressed at how well this worked. And very thankful that the city I live in has placed these big picnic tables in the park. It felt like camping while having a party haha I would recommend tarp parties to anyone! It was pretty fun to watch people walking past thinking what the hell is this haha.
We must have looked pretty weird in our little tarp set up
Anyway, I had a great weekend, it has really lifted my spirits to celebrate with my friends and to finally have found a place to live! I hope your weekend was lovely as well!
Deep Time Study: Put 40 People in a Cave and See What Happens
In my spare time I love to go caving: from an often small and insignificant hole in the ground you discover a new world and realize that all this time you have been walking on an invisible land. Some caves are cramped, some beautiful with structures and colors, some are muddy and some are giant cathedrals underground. I once spend a night in a cave as well with a group of cavers (don't worry it was voluntary, there is not some sort of horror story coming now) and what I still remember is the utter lack of context. When lying on my sleeping mat I could not for the life of me figure out which side of my body was the right hand side and which the left hand side. In the pitch black we humans loose all sense of direction, space and time. This is even more interesting when you realize that humans since their beginning as a species have spend considerable time living in caves.
This is me and my caving group spending the night in a cave, the lights of course were off when we slept, to save batteries.
The Research
All these mysteries that caves are surrounded with made a group of French investigators curious. This was the start of the Deep Time experiment. What would happen if you would put a group of people in a cave, sealed off from the outside world and you give them no way to check the time? No watches, no phones and most importantly no sunlight. Would a natural body clock appear? Would people's perception of time change? Would people go mad? Would there be an ancient system inside our DNA taken over from our cave dwelling ancestors that would kick in? Only time would tell...
For 40 days and 40 nights, the 15 participants of this experiment would be inside a cave in France. They would sleep in tents, eat together, and generate their own electricity on a push bike.
It meant that the participants had no idea how long they had slept, been awake, or how much time in the cave had passed since they had arrived.
The Outcome
Interestingly enough the opposite of what the researchers had expected happened. The researchers assumed that the group would together find a new rhythm inside the cave and stick to that as a group. The reality however, was that each individual assumed it's own time schedule. Meaning that some people were waking up to start their day, while others were up for hours and were cooking dinner.
Another interesting outcome was that each individual reported the length of their days not to be the 24hrs on the outside world, but instead switched to a cycle of 32 hours in which they did everything they would usually do on the surface. When asked how many days they thought had passed at the end of the 40 day experiment, most participants believed to be on day 29. All of the participants natural body clocks had gone completely out of whack and many felt completely detached and even unnerved as this happened.
Perhaps this research gives us more questions then answers: is there even such a thing as a body clock? Or is that just dependent on your environment? How can people adapt such wildly different body clocks when in similar circumstances? What does it do to us to lose a sense of time? And what did it do to our cave dwelling ancestors?
I hope this research provoked some questions for you as well, I have found it fascinating to read about and I hope you have too!
Erin Brockovich: A Golden Oldie [EN: Review]
I noticed last night that Netflix had added the movie Erin Brockovich and I had distant memories of watching this years ago and remembering it was great. So I decided to pop it on and man has that movie survived its ageing well!
The Story- Spoiler Free
So Julia Roberts plays Erin Brockovich, a smart woman who has lacked work training and education opportunities due to having children young and who is now stuck between a rock and a hard place after the fathers of the babies left her with all the financial responsibilities and a chronic lack of time. When she gets injured in a traffic accident, her lawyer Ed Masry promises her they will win the case. When they do not Erin talks him into giving her a job to pay her bills.
As she starts to work as a filer in the law firm the case of a family grabs her attention. PG&E, a giant industrial firm has built a plant outside the village of Hinkley and tries to buy up property from the local residents. Only problem is, these residents are all getting severely ill. Because of her great investigative work Erin establishes a relation with the locals and figures out that PG&E is not as innocent as they make themselves come across. But how do you fight Goliath in court? And how especially do you manage when you are also juggling three children as a single working woman. Not to mention all the lawyers and corporate men who look down on her?
Why is this movie so great?
Because great it is! I think it has stood the test of time so great mostly because:
It is still relevant: how often don't people feel like they stand powerless against big companies or governments? And how much would they like someone genuine that was fighting for them? I think this movie touches upon a lot of real topics, without sugar coating them. Yes it is hard to fight injustice and yes it is hard to be a single working mother of three!
It was real: so if you hadn't noticed yet, Erin Brockovich is real! The movie is based on a true story and is a pretty accurate description of reality. In this case it makes the story even more impressive.
It is funny: man did I have a laugh yesterday. The characters are genuine, Erin and lawyer Ed Masry can really get under each others nerves sometimes and say pretty hilarious things. It is so important for a movie about such a serious topic to also have that humor in that just takes the edge off a bit and this movie does it really well!
So go watch this Golden Oldie from 2000 again when you have a free evening, I think you will enjoy it a lot! What fun movies have you been watching lately?
Weekend of BBQ's and Recovery
Hope you have all had a good weekend! I had not one but TWO BBQ's last weekend, but in even more exciting news I got my first Covid vaccine last friday! To top the weekend off I also had a fun visit to some pigs this sunday. Pretty good weekend I say.
I know everyone has their own opinion on the vaccine, which is fine and I'm not here to tell you what to do. But I am pretty chuffed I got mine. I am a teacher in high school and have seen many kids and colleagues become pretty ill from this virus. So it's nice to get my first shot before the school year comes to an end. It didn't bother me much, though I was a bit tired this weekend. But no rest for the wicked as I had a lot of stuff to do...
BBQ numero uno
Friday I had a bbq with my colleagues kind of as a closure to the schoolyear and this was a special one because it is my last year at my current school. My current contract ended and I decided it was time for a new challenge and both me and my partner wanted to move outside of the hustle and bustle of city life so we are taking the plunge! Though I am super happy with my new job, it's going to be strange to leave my very nice colleagues. Also, who is going to appreciate my odd sense of humor at my new school? But it was really nice to eat together, have nice talks and look forward to new challenges to come!
I mean seriously where will I find colleagues that will dress up as a cave dweller and a medieval knight for fun?
BBQ Numero dos
The next day I woke up super tired from the vaccine (it must be because I didn't drink friday and slept a solid 9 hours) so I spend most of my Saturday trying to wake up. Around 4 p.m. I was finally waking up and just in time to head straight to the next bbq! This one hosted by three good friends who have decided to tackle the housing crisis by living in a house together with the three of them as none of them can afford a place by themselves. It is so nice we can sit outside with some friends and have a social again! So we had some drinks, grilled a ridiculous amount of meat and watched the football. Went to bed pretty early though to sleep some more as I was still pretty tired.
#### Some pigs to close the weekend
Sunday I woke up still tired, but better than the day before and we decided to go for a walk in the park nearby. They have a petting zoo as well and I love petting zoos! I loved them as a child already but the love never went away. So we spend quite some time with the donkeys, sheep and piggies. The pigs are my favorite: there are three of them. They are pretty hairy and love napping! I took a picture of them napping (they were snoring, it was very cute).
Well that was my weekend, I hope you had a nice one too! I felt recharged enough for another crazy workweek (only two left till vacation!) What did you do this weekend?
Economic Homelessness: How Enough Is Not Enough
Economic Homelessness is also referred to as "the working poor", but I find this description not to be very accurate. How I know? I am about to become economically homeless. The people who have enough, but yet at the end of the day don't have a house.
What is economic homelessness?
To state it really short and simple it entails that you have the means to rent or buy property, but you are not able to get a house nonetheless. Nowadays this is mostly due to soaring housing prices or the lack of housing, which means many people flock to few properties for rent/sale and therefore many miss out. These people earn too much to apply for social housing or government help and thus end up on a private market that is completely overheated. Currently in the Netherlands (where I live) alone this group of homless is estimated to consist of about 40.000 people [Source] https://vng.nl/artikelen/economisch-daklozen-vallen-tussen-wal-en-schip
Most of these people end up having to live with friends, family, crashing couches or booking holiday homes or hotels. The number of economic homeless has tripled (!) in the last five years.
How I might become one of these people
So for the past year my partner (mailman) and I (high school teacher) have been moving from place to place. From a shared flat with 3 other girls, to a temporary residence reserved for expats (who weren't there because of corona) to subletting from a friend's parents who have a flat for rent. We have moved three times in the past year. As our current residence is getting sold and we both got a job in a different city our search for a house has- once again- started. We earn pretty well (around 50.000 EUR a year) so you would say no problemo. But big problemo. Because there are so few properties, every time something comes on there is a crazy frenzy. I have found out that if you respond to a new place within two hours you are usually granted a viewing. Any later than that and too many people have responded and you're out. This means that next to our fulltime jobs we have to be online constantly to check and respond
When you do get a viewing (yay, you messaged straight away!) you are one of between 5-30 people who got lucky. Strangely enough all these people always respond with: yes I would like to rent/buy this! And let the frenzy begin. With buying it means having to overbid with at least 50.000 EUR. With renting it can go anywhere from who makes the most to random lotteries.
So what is the solution?
Or rather: what solutions are there, because not one thing will change this problem.
* **More houses**: it seems obvious: since the lack of housing is the main driver behind this problem, the solution seems to build more houses. And partially this is true. However, houses take time to design, pass the local government laws and be build. In The Netherlands the estimate is that 1 million houses are needed to solve the crisis, in the U.S. the shortage is increasing now by about 300.000 units a [year] Yikes. That's a lot of houses. What is needed are lots of houses, but also affordable and durable houses. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the_housing_crisis
* **More legislation**: As more people enter the market their hopes rest in the hands of private companies/ individuals that face almost no regulation. When we apply for a viewing (mind you just to view it) we have to send a whopping 27 pages of information detailing our entire financial situation. These companies are then free to choose who they want on whatever criteria they want. They can also set any requirements to the renters as they please. The ones we find most commonly are: earning at least 3 or 4 times the rent (only the person with the highest income counts, no children (didn't know this was a thing, wonder if they would throw you out if you managed to get pregnant after you move..), no foreigners (oh yay racism comes in the mix too) and my favorite: no spicy cooking (imagine!). With no regulations we are in the wild wild west. The government should make sure that those that can afford it, should have a fair chance and those that can't should be entitled to social housing. I have a friend (also teacher) who is single, earns too much for social housing but was told by the realtor to come back when she has found a boyfriend, as she would never meet the rent income barrier by herself.
* **Think of alternative ways of living**: As we all fight over a square meter of living space it becomes clear that before new houses are built we must get creative: shared housing, tiny houses, offices made into temporary housing (think of all the empty offices during corona!), groups that want to finance a house together etc. Right now many of these alternatives have to battle regulations, reluctant banks and non-cooperative companies. However, some countries are ahead of others. Germany for example has made it much easier to take a mortgage with a group of people, allowing such innovative forms of living together.
So here we find ourselves with a large challenge in many countries at the moment. I hope we can all get creative, think outside of the box and get our governments to do the same. In the mean time we keep trying to find a place to live, but at least we have each other and that is the most important thing!
Would you like to share your insights and/or story? Do you have creative ideas on how to solve or work on this crisis? I would love to hear it!
@Plint
