Rising Star: Update and New Card Pack
What Is Rising Star?
So for those of you that don't know Rising Star is a fun blockchain based game on the Hive chain. You have to build a band, perform and can earn rewards and other things that you need to advance in the game. You can also buy cards that are NFT's to advance. I wrote an article about it earlier: https://www.publish0x.com/understandable-crypto/the-path-to-fame-i-joined-the-rising-star-game-xeldloz
If you want to try it out, here is my referral https://www.risingstargame.com/?referrer=plint
Update
I had a good week on Rising Star, as I managed to open the Local Gig Circuit! Finally managed to do the Saturday Headline. Now I just need to buy a guitar so I can start the Local Gig Circuit, so I am getting my starbits together for that!
Bought A Pack
I also bought a new pack last week and this was the result:
Omnistar: what a weird thing haha. It is a rare card that goes for about 5000 starbits at the moment, so pretty good and I didn't have this card yet!
Claudio: I also didn't have Claudio yet. He goes for around 800 starbits and always nice to get some fans.
Buster: This is my second buster, he goes for around 1000 starbits, but doesn't come with great stats.
All in all I spend 10.000 starbits to get a value in cards of 6800 starbits, so that is not great this time, usually I do a bit better.
Up Next
I will be buying the i6 midrange accoustic guitar on the marketplace and then I can start playing the Local Gig Circuit. Will be fun to see what is going on there and what the rewards are.
How are you doing on Rising Star?
February Earnings of a Small Fish
Do 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.
February was not an amazing month for crypto and also not an amazing month for me personally. Things got really busy at work and quite stressful at home with my fiance dealing with seasonal depression. So I didn't have great expectations for this month but let's see!
February Earnings
**Hive: $108,47** Hive remains at the top for me. It was not a great month considering I got close to $200 last month but all things considered I was pretty pleased. Referral here https://ecency.com/signup?referral=plint
**Read.Cash: $46,55** I was off to a flying start at the beginning of the month and then the tips kind of dried out. It was mostly due to my lack of involvement, so I am hoping that will pick up again. Referral https://read.cash/r/Plint
**Noise.Cash: $25** Noise cash seems to be going slowly downhill, it gets harder and harder to make nice tips. I hope it picks up again because I used to make quite a lot from it! Referral https://noise.cash/u/plints
**Rising Star: $7,89** The first time I include play2earn game Rising Star. It took a bit of calculating, but own a decent amount in NFTs currently. Pretty happy with this! Referral https://www.risingstargame.com/?referrer=plint
**Coinbase Earn: $6** Again, if you don't pick up this free money you are a bit silly! Here my referral https://www.coinbase.com/join/smolde_q8?src=android-share/
**Splinterlands: $3,94** I have neglected Splinterlands a bit the past month, but still made a small profit on SPS and new cards. Try it here https://splinterlands.com/?ref=plints
**Celsius: $3,37** I love Celsius and keep most of my coins there to generate me some extra income. Referral https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1196075cd9
**Cake DeFi: $ 2,40** A steady earner for the once $50 I invested in it. 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!
**PublishOx: $1,51** I never really make any money on PublishOx and yet I love it haha. I am just going to keep on trucking! Check it out https://www.publish0x.com/?a=4QbYvl5ndz
Total Earnings: $205,18
Quite a bit lower than last month when I was close to $300 but to be expected since I got so busy with life offline I spent a lot less time here!
I did get a bit closer to my goal of 0.5 ETH in 2022. I currently have 0.167 ETH.
How was your month of February? What nice ways of making revenue did you use?
The Weird and Wonderful World of Toothbrushing
I am a member of the weekend community in Hive and this weekend it is all about weird and wonderous habits. I decided to go for option 1, describing my own quirks, as I quite frankly, have many.
Source https://www.dreamstime.com/human-brain-cute-cartooning-monster-inside-concept-what-strange-things-people-have-thoughts-funny-human-brain-image129840601
**The Toothbrush**
Ok I will just come out with the weirdest thing. I am weird about toothbrushes, the act of brushing and toothpaste itself. I am not sure when I started getting weird about it, I think I have always been. As a child, I didn't want to spit out toothpaste so for many years I actually swallowed my toothpaste every time. Turns out that is not great for your health, so I did stop doing that. But there are some weird things I still do:
Water and toothbrushes don't mix: I mean they don't. I will gag when I have to use a wet toothbrush. There cannot be any water near it until I am done and I rinse it. So I also don't wet my toothbrush after I put my toothpaste on it. Which, seriously people your mouth is full of water, you don't need that. My fiance for some reason always manages to turn brushing his teeth into a true watersport with water all over the place and, god forbid, near the toothbrush. NO!
Toothbrush water is the vilest thing on earth: So when you are done with brushing your teeth many people return the now wet (and sometimes still a bit toothpasty) brush to a cup with all its friends. Like this:
Source
This is unaccaptable. Some sort of weird mix of water, toothpaste and human drool forms at the bottom of said cup. Brrrr... And people think it is normal to leave the toothbrush there?! Instead, I rinse my toothbrush, dry it with a towel, then put it on a slight slope so the part I put in my mouth stays lovely and clean... https://dentalstudiocolleyville.com/blog/picking-a-toothbrush-and-toothpaste-what-are-the-alternatives/
The foam, not the foam! Oh you thought this was it didn't you? That crazy toothbrush lady had unveiled all her secrets? Well no, I have one more thing. See I did overcome my problem with spitting out the toothpaste when I am done, but I hate the foam. It cannot, under any circumstance come out of my mouth during the process and be on my lip/mouth/any other bodypart. People who look like this:
Source https://www.tauntondental.ca/how-to-prevent-bad-taste-after-brushing-your-teeth/
Not me, I will not have any of it, all needs to be contained in my mouth until I spit it out.
So there we have it: the naked truth of my weird habits! My fiance was at first weirded out by them, but has now given up on trying to change me. And to be honest, I think a lot of people could improve on their toothbrushin regime. So am I weird, or is the rest weird.....
1000 Weekend: Girls Getaway!
This is a post for the Weekend contest on Hive: what would you do if you were given $1000 to spend on a weekend getaway. So here is what I would do:
I drive up to my friends house on Friday in my bright red Volkswagen Polo and both my friends Linda and Leonie hop in with their weekend bags. That's right: it is time for a girls weekend! Because you know, girls just wanna have fun!
We have had a financial windfall and have $1000 dollars to spend on a lovely weekend together!
The Destination
We will be driving to our destination as I am terrified of airplanes. After only 4 hours we reach: the Ardennes! A beautiful area in Belgium, where we have a lovely chalet booked by the water.
The chalet set us back $500 for the weekend, so plenty left to have fun with! It even has a hot tub! We also stop by the shops and spend $150 on lovely local food, cold cuts and cheese. You see, Linda, Leonie and I are all cheese obsessed so we need a cheese platter!
The Activities
But we didn't just come here to soak in a hot tub and eat cheese! The is plenty to do so the next day we head out for adventure!
First stop: Kayaking the Lesse river
We rent kayaks near the beautiful town of Dinant, and follow the river Lesse. It takes us past castles and we get a chance to chat while doing it.
Activities don't have to be expensive to be fun of course, this has only set us back $50 for the three of us. Now our muscles are sore and we need some relaxation so we spend the afternoon in a spa inside a castle!
We treat ourselves to a lovely massage, sip on champagne and do what girls do: we talk some more! We manage to spend $150 in the spa, but with custom massages its not too bad!
The next day we wake up refreshed and after a nice long walk we have a long dinner together to celebrate our weekend. We go to a fancy place to spend our last dollars! We had a great weekend, it is always good to share your money and experiences!
Ardennes: Hiking and Castles
We are currently on vacation in the Ardennes, a lovely natural area in the south of Belgium. I used to come here lots to go climbing and caving, but in the winter when those things are not possible we like to come here to hike!
So it has been super rainy and windy for the past week, but today it cleared up so out we went! We decided on a loop of just under 10 km, good to get a feel for what the trails were like but also so we wouldn't get too cold and we would avoid the rain predicted for the afternoon!
We started in the village of Anseremme, near Dinant which is a beautiful town!
As you can see it's by the river (the Meuse) and on the side there are beautiful rocks (great for climbing when the weather is dry). You follow the river on a nice path that is slightly muddy at the moment. Then after about 4km we passed a castle! I love castles. This is Chateau Freyr. It lies on the riverside while the side you walk on has big walls used for climbing as well.
We walked on and couldn't help but have a play on the rocks ourselves.
After that you walk down to the other river in the area, the Lesse, known for its kayaking. We followed that river via a very nice track back to the town of Anseremme and our car.
Here is an overview of the route we did:
The length was perfect and despite the day being a bit grey it was lovely to get out, get active and be in nature!
Waking Up Different.....
I wake up feeling super sleepy and strangely not myself. I can't figure out what is different in my sleepy state, but that something is odd is clear to me. As per usual though I have to pee. I stumble out of bed, feeling oddly tall and muscular, but paying it hardly any mind, when you have to go, oh well you know the feeling....
I mean seriously how weird would it be to wake up as the other gender? Providing I wouldn't have a heart attack (a real possibilty when waking up in a different body) it would be an interesting experience!
Benefits and Negatives
I mean do I have to say this out loud? But no more periods would totally be the best thing.... ever. Being able to stand while peeing also would be really nice. Not so great would be all the hair I think and not having my nice soft curves (I carry around my own pillow on my ass, its great).
But in all seriousness, what would be most interesting would be discovering the male psyche. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who has a friend that transitioned from woman to man. Took all the hormones and was shocked by the difference it made in their brain. They said the most interesting thing was that they had less thoughts and way more physical urges and desires.
How fascinating would it be if you could feel what it was like to be the opposite sex? A completely different set of hormones, thoughts, ideas. Most interesting would be what if it was still me, my intelligence but in a completely male setting. Who would I be as a man? Would I be very different than the me I am now? What effect would the different hormones have on my personality, my drives, my passions?
My Day
I think I would just spend the day exploring the different effects o n my body and mind. I would try to have a pretty full day that would give me a full experience. I would for sure go out and do some sports to test my new body. I would also eat heaps as one of my biggest frustrations as a woman is how looking at food can make me fat.
I would then go out with friends, see if I would feel the same about all my friends and how different the interaction would be. I would also take some time to just hang out with some other guys, as I have always wondered what guy talk is like!
At the end of the day I would crawl into bed and wake up the next day as same old female me. Because no matter how fun I think this project would be, I like being me and being a woman! I love chatting with my girlfriends, crying to a good movie and feeling whirwinds of emotions. I also would not like to miss out on the whole pregnancy possibility which I would have to miss out of as a guy...
All in all it would be the most fascinating day of my life so far, but I would want to return to me.
A Weekend in a Yurt
A few weeks ago one of my friends called me and asked if we would be interested in a weekend in a Yurt with them. They had booked a yurt for the two of them but then found out that the yurt could house 4 people.
Obviously we said yes, I mean, who says no to yurt life? We would be going in the middle of winter, but the yurt had a woodstove, there was a sauna, a meditation tipi and a big forest around to entertain us!
Yurt Life
I instantly fell in love with the yurt when we pulled up. We arrived around dinner time after work, but our friends had gotten there sooner and had made us food and had heated up some gluhwein (hot wine) so that was the best start to the weekend. The wood burner was also on and it was really warm inside the yurt!
We had a great time catching up and having some drinks and a laugh. We had the wood burner on maximum until we went to bed and then covered ourselves with blankets during the night. Outside it was -5 degrees but inside we were nice and warm, until I had to go pee.....
In the morning I woke up, a bit cold but not too bad and with the light falling into the yurt, pretty cool!
The Activities
So my fellow yurtians decided to do something crazy and went for a cold water training... I declined because I hate the cold but also I had pneumonia in October and don't want to stress my poor lungs! It was a lot of fun to watch them and take pictures of them freezing in the water haha. They did stay in for 3 whole minutes, pretty impressive!
Afterwards when everyone had warmed up and we had lunch we headed out for a nice long walk through the forest. Nature can be so beautiful in the winter sometimes and we had the best of it: it was cold but blue skies and lots of sunshine. We walked for 8 km and then our feet got sore so we decided on some chill time in the yurt with some drinks and cheese.
We had a truly magical weekend in the yurt to be honest! It was lovely to have a woodburner in the yurt. We had great talks, good walks and it was absolutely glorious to be back in nature and just enjoy the fresh air and the sunshine.
Splinterlands: End Of Season Rewards And Another Slow Season!
Hi all, hope you all got great rewards this season!
This is my first post this week on read, sorry all, but my week has been crazy! Will give more of an update on how things are going when I have a bit more time!
I haven't been able to play much unfortunately, work is crazy right now so I have been all work and no play, but should change soon as vacation is coming up!
So this season I got stuck again in Bronze III, all my fault of course for not playing regularly. I also had a lot of water quests and my water deck is not currently doing so amazing.
My Rewards
These are the rewards I received at the end of the season. And I am pretty happy with receiving a card, always nice! I didn't have many expectations for this round as I haven't done much playing so was happy with any of it really.
Luckily my SPS increases of its own accord and I saw the price has come up a bit as well, so that has been nice to see!
The Upcoming Season
I have almost got enough cards to play at Bronze II without having to rent so looking forward to getting that done this season hopefully! If I have some funds left over I might buy another pack, always nice to open some new cards. I am currently waiting for the prices to drop a bit again before buying some new cards on the market place.
The plan obviously is to play more, but as my vacation will be starting soon I will have more time to play then! Yay!
How was your end of season reward and what are your plans for the upcoming season?
Rising Star: Update and New Cards!
I have had a great week in Rising Star. Managed to unlock the local gig circuit so very excited about that!
What Is Rising Star?
So for those of you that don't know Rising Star is a fun blockchain based game on the Hive chain. You have to build a band, perform and can earn rewards and other things that you need to advance in the game. You can also buy cards that are NFT's to advance. I wrote an article about it earlier: https://www.publish0x.com/understandable-crypto/the-path-to-fame-i-joined-the-rising-star-game-xeldloz
If you want to try it out, here is my referral https://www.risingstargame.com/?referrer=plint
Progress and New Pack
So I was really happy with the new local circuit I opened up, but I need a guitar for it so I need to get that one next.
I also bought a new pack:
**Hetty**
I am happy with Hetty and with the fans that come with her! It is going for around 8000 starbits so made my investment of 10,000 starbits for the pack back almost!
**Gran Casa**
I mean it is pretty meh, goes for about 850 starbits...
**Cheap Electric Violin**
I guess everybody needs a cheap violin right? It goes for about 700 starbits.
So all in all pretty good pack thanks to Hetty, almost got 10,000 starbits worth, not that I will be selling any of these cards, I need the stats!
Looking Forward
So I am excited the buy the guitar I need so I can go to the local gig circuit and see what that is like.
How have you been doing in Rising Star?
The Red House: A Dysfunctional Family Goes on Holiday
This year I have set myself the challenge to read 52 books in 2022 or one book a week. This is a decent challenge but I am very excited about it!
Last night I finished book number 5. The Red House by Mark Haddon.
Source https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/the-red-house/9200000001531529/
Mark Haddon
The writer of the book is most known for his title The Curious Incident With The Dog In The Night-Time. I loved that book so when I saw this title in the charity shop for 1 euro I decided to pick it up. Funny thing is that he mostly wrote childrens books and that even his books for adults are well known for including the perspective of children in them. I liked his previous book because it was different and it read super nicely. One of those books you take with you on the train and finish on the ride home already.
Source https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1050.Mark_Haddon
The Red House
Immediatly after starting the book I realized this was a very different book than I expected. Instead of quirky, like his other books, this was going to be a heavy book, about people dealing with problems.
After the death of their mother, Richard and Angela decide to take a family vacation together with their spouses and children. They rent a house in the Welsh hills to spend a week together, something they have not done since their childhood. As the week unravels, so do the characters. Each coming to (sometimes shocking) realizations about themselves and those around them. In the wet hills of Wales one by one they slowly unravel their secrets to the reader.
So this book is pretty heavy. It deals with harsh realities and real problems. Something, I have to be fair, I was not necessarily waiting for when I picked up this book. I struggled for the first hundred pages, reluctant to get to know the characters who all seemed to have their own difficult problems. But once you pierce through that you find yourself stangely entranced by the story. You go from not wanting to know, to having to know what happens next. I think what Haddon did really well was making all his characters flawed and thereby likeable.
What I struggled with was the constant change of perspective, often unannounced. You float between the characters, sometimes not knowing where you are. It was also pretty dark to read. But, to my own surprise, I did get sucked in to the story and found myself reading with more and more focus as the story unwound itself.
What are you currently reading? Any good reading tips for me for the 47 books left for this year? I would love to hear!
La Isla We're Stuck Here
You wake up in a hammock, it is warm, you feel the heat even though you are in the shade. You were sleeping deeply and for a moment you are confused about were you are. You see the palm trees, the sand and the sea and it all comes back to you.... You are still stuck on that island you came to 4 years ago. Not knowing that what was supposed to be an overnight trip to an island ended up in being stuck there for this long.
Oh well, at least you are not alone right? You would have gone mad a long time ago. Luckily you came here with your favorite people in the world. But if they will still be your favorites after this remains to be seen...
La Isla Bonita?
When I saw the writing prompt for this week I first thought ah great I could spend 5 years on a beautiful island with three of my favorite people! But the more I thought about it the more I realized that there are a couple of challenges there: boredom being the main one. I mean tropical islands are fun but are not known for their endless activities and everyone gets bored of chilling in a hammock after a while... Another problem is that I don't really love sand, so that will be interesting as well. I quickly realized that in order not to go crazy I would have to bring the perfect mix of three people that would help me keep my sanity.
Who I would bring:
My Fiance: to be fair it would be bit weird if I didn't bring him haha. But one of the main reasons to bring him is that he is creative and he likes to be active, so I feel like he would come up with lots of activities to do. I am not fully sure he would love the tropical island vibe all the time as he has really light skin and doesn't do too well with heat haha. But as this picture shows we have survived hot weather before in Oman, so we can do this!
My best friend: Linda. We have been friends since we were 15 and have travelled quite a lot together so I know we would go well together. We manage to entertain ourselves in most situations and very importantly neither of us are very difficult to be around. Linda also usually manages to get me off my ass which I think I will need on this island because I would go mad from just being in a hammock all the time. This is us a gazillion years ago when we were still in high school and went on a trip to Rome:
I do think initially she will be a bit upset with me for dragging her to an island for 5 years, but she is one of the few people where I am confident our friendship could handle it.
Noam Chomsky: this might sound crazy, why would I bring an 80-something year old philosopher/ political activist with me to a lonely island? Well, I need it I think. I mean, who better to keep you inspired on a five year stint than him? I feel like I need someone vastly more intelligent on this island than myself so that Chomsky could teach me and I won't get bored. I can't think fo anyone more inspirational to bring.
La Isla Not So Bonita
The more I think about it, the more this 5 year stint on an island would not be so great haha. I mean, I don't think anyone will be thrilled to be stuck on an island for 5 years so my three people will probably hate me at the end, but at least I think we will survive without killing each other... Or will we?
Rising Star: Update and New Pack
I have been playing Rising Star quite a lot and things have gotten easier for me since I have been opening some packs. So it is now easier to accumulate 10,000 starbits so I can buy more packs!
What Is Rising Star?
So for those of you that don't know Rising Star is a fun blockchain based game on the Hive chain. You have to build a band, perform and can earn rewards and other things that you need to advance in the game. You can also buy cards that are NFT's to advance. I wrote an article about it earlier: https://www.publish0x.com/understandable-crypto/the-path-to-fame-i-joined-the-rising-star-game-xeldloz
If you want to try it out, here is my referral https://www.risingstargame.com/?referrer=plint
Progress and New Pack
I am currently level 21 and have opened the local gig circuit, yay! I also bought another pack and this is what I had in it:
My most disappointing pack so far to be honest, but ah well.
**Jarred**
This card currently goes for about 1600 starbits and has 20 skill, which is nice for my ego.
**Bo**
I am happy with the 15 fans, always nice to have some. This card goes for around 1250 starbits, so nothing exciting.
**Dundun**
This is a rare card and gives 50 luck so I am pretty happy about that. It goes for about 3500 starbits, so not bad!
Overall, I bought the pack for 10,000 starbits and got cards valued at around 6350, so not quite the same value. However, I am not planning to sell any cards any time soon as I am trying to advance in this game!
5 Wins in 5 Tries: Sneak Quest in Bronze
Had a good day today in Splinterlands. Played 5 games and won all 5 of them so it was a good day overall.
I had the Sneak quest which happens to be one of my favorites. I decided to play a death deck. A bit sad were the rewards I got, but in Bronze III what does one expect?
Ah well, credits are still welcome.
The Deck
I decided to make a death deck, as I think it has the best sneak options.
Thaddius is a great summoner with the double benefit.
This is my choice as a tank. I love this card because of the thorns ability. The health is a bit low, so you want to make your battles quick and sharp!
Then now for the sneak part I used these two sneak cards:
The Silent Sha-vi is one of my favorite cards of the entire game at the moment.
Undead badger is a great cheap card as well.
Battle link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_3433267835adb5762f576a9111c6a8ee&ref=plints
Want to try Splinterlands? https://splinterlands.com?ref=plints
Splinterlands- EOS Rewards After a Slow Season
few days ago was the end of season on Splinterlands. I have to say that I had a pretty bad season. I decided to focus more on blogging on Read and Hive to increase my earnings there and combined with a full-time job I found that left very little time to play.... Guilty as charged.
I had quite some trouble to stay motivated for Splinterlands, it also didn't help that all the value of the cards dropped quite significantly.
So when I got to the end of the season I was still in Bronze III, after two seasons in Bronze II this was pretty much a downfall and a sad one too since the prices had dropped so much it would have been pretty easy to have stayed in Bronze II. But ah well, no use crying over spilt milk.
My End Of Season Rewards
So I opened my 5 packs and as expected they didn't contain any cards. Here is what I got:
It was actually not as bad as I feared, at least I got some credits and 2 potions, instead of all potions.
Looking Forward to This Season
The new season has already started and I have vowed to make this a better one. I am still not sure if I will reach Bronze II since work is absolutely bananas now, but I do vow to play more and finish more quests so I can get more rewards that way. Hopefully that will increase my chance at getting more cards as well.
How did your season go? Were you happy with your rewards?
January Earnings of a Small Fish
Do 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.
So January all the prices dropped, but you know how they say that when the market is down you need to accumulate. So that is just what I have been trying to do. I am also trying to achieve 0.5 ETH by the end of this year so will be interesting to see where I am getting with that.
January Earnings
**Hive: $189,06** Hive it back where it belongs baby! I had a great month on Hive. Too bad the price dropped quite a bit, but I think Hive will recover very well again. Referral link here https://ecency.com/signup?referral=plint
**Read Cash: $53,22** I did well in read this month, I like this platform. Rusty was absent for a couple of days, but luckily he found me again. Referral here https://read.cash/r/Plint
**Noise Cash: $35** Noise has slowed down a bit, the amount of tips have dropped, but it is still a nice amount and I have some good friends over there. Referral here https://noise.cash/u/plints
**Splinterlands: $5,56** The prices on Splinterlands have been dropping too but I did get some nice cards, so not too bad. Referral here https://splinterlands.com/?ref=plints
**Celsius: $4,08** I stake most of my coins on Celsius. Join now and you receive a $40 referral bonus. Referral here https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/1196075cd9
**Coinbase Earn: $3** A bit disappointing this time round, only had one coinbase earn. But it is still free money, so you are crazy if you don't have Coinbase yet for this purpose. Referral here https://www.coinbase.com/join/smolde_q8?src=android-share/
**Cake DeFi: $2.12** I stake some coins here as well, not so many but they give nice referral rewards! 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!
January Total: $292,04
Not bad for this month with all the prices dropping! I have put all my profits into ETH because my goal this year is to reach 0.5 eth. I am currently on 0.129, so well on my way!
My goals for the upcoming month are to be just as active on Hive and Read, hopefully pick up PublishOx again, which I have been lacking on.
How was your month of January?
Beloved - A Gut Wrenching Classic
This year I have set myself the challenge to read 52 books in 2022 or one book a week. This is a decent challenge but I am very excited about it!
Number 3 of 2022 was Beloved by Tony Morrison.
Source https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/117647/beloved-by-toni-morrison/
Toni Morrison
You may have heard of the writer, Toni Morrison. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 and also wrote Song of Salomon. She was an editor before but decided she wanted to focus on writing and wanted to be able to write on slavery, a story near to her that she did not feel as free to focus all her energy on when she was still an editor.
Source https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/toni-morrison-essential-books-867897/
Beloved
Morrison came with the inspiration for the novel when she read the story of Margaret Garner, a former slave who was hunted down by her slave owners and killed her 2 year old daughter so they couldn't capture her. Morrison wondered what that is like: wanting to protect your child from slavery so bad that you would rather kill her.
In the novel we follow Sethe, who has escaped her slave existence and has fled to Ohio with her daughter Denver and her mother in-law Baby Suggs. All but her daughter Beloved, who instead inhabits the house as a ghost. All inhabitants of the house suffer from their past, but also struggle with the present. It becomes a harrowing tale of how trauma doesn't end when one leaves, but how it follows your entire life. When Paul D, also a former slave at the same plantation, arrives in Ohio many of these feelings are stirred and a battle to let go of the past follows.
It was also turned into a movie in 1998 where Oprah Winfrey plays the main role of Sethe.
Source https://www.sfmoma.org/event/beloved/
This gave the book and the story a lot of coverage and introduced it to a big audience. Though in my opinion the book has enough power to do that all by itself. It takes a while to get used to the writing style of Morrison, as she writes very lyrical sentences, where it is not always clear if you are in the past, present or who is talking. But that also makes it magical. I would really recommend reading this!
What are you currently reading?
Thanks @belozoriana for the sponsorship! It is much appreciated! Always lovely to get new sponsors who appreciate your work!
The Last One Standing
**What if you are the last on only person left?**
Would you talk to a volleybal like Tom Hanks in Cast Away?
What would absolute solitude really do to a person? Would it drive you mad? Would you learn to cope? Would you find an object to attack to like Tom Hanks? Would you kill yourself?
The Scene
Imagine, some disaster has struck: a deadly virus to which you alone are immune, a volcanic eruption that killed all life but you. It has been featured in many books and tv shows, but then it was always multiple people surviving. One of my favorites in Earth Abides, a book of some humans surviving, after a horrible virus outbreak. Since so much stuff was left for them (food, cars, houses, books etc) the humans in the new world don't become self-sufficient, but live off what is left. They develop their own religion, tribal habbits etc. It's a really cool book, if you have the time.
But in all these scenarios people may not have the world they once inhabited, or even things like their eyesight (like in the book Blindness), but they still have each other. You may say that could be a curse as well, groups that try to kill each other etc, but it is a big difference to being alone on the world....
True Solitude
I cannot even imagine it, being the only human left. I think what would make it worse is if you knew you were the only one. Thinking there might be others and looking for them would give you hope that would keep you going. But imagine knowing you are all alone and will be till the day you die. Assuming I would not go mad instantly and kill my self (quite the presumption I realize) I think I might do something like this:
Survival: this is the main point of course, you need food, but I also think I would really nice a home, a place to stay. If you could at least watch crops grow, flowers bloom etc you might not lose your mind instantly. I would also start looking for animals to keep. They could give you company and some idea of living creatures still being there. I think a farm would keep you going physically and mentally
Health: this is a real problem, because anything that happens to you cannot be fixed by anyone else. Break your arm, well that is a big problem. Got a nasty infection? Best hope you make it through quickly because no-one will water your crops while you are sick. It would be super important to stay healthy but also to not have any major accidents. One would have to be super careful in a post-apocalyptic world.
Solitude: now this is where we circle back. I do genuinly think that most people if left completely alone on the planet would go mad. You would at the very least start talking to yourself and probably also treat objects as people, like Tom Hanks did. You would lose more and more of your vocabulary for lack of speaking to people. You would lose your social skills and probably get really depressed from the dark scenario that you are in.
What To Do To Fend Off Solitude?
I think a couple of things would help to soften the blow a bit: you would have to stay super busy, to forget how alone you are. A self-sufficient farm would keep you pretty occupied. You would also have to find a way to challenge yourself: read books, write, make music or something that keeps you busy and keeps you using language. Finally, you would need goals. When after you humanity would be dead life can seem pretty meaningless, so you would have to set goals to prevent from going mad. I think personally, as a historian I would start some process to document what happened to the world. In case anyone in the future ever finds it...
Well hope this topic wasn't too bleak haha, enjoy your weekend and most importantly the people around you!
My Ideal Weekend: Friends, Fun and Mountains
welcome to my ideal weekend! It is going to be a great ride!
The Friday Night
So in our ideal weekend we head straight from work Friday to the mountains. Since it is my ideal weekend, we are not taking the car or the train but we are teleporting straight there. We make it to the south of Switzerland in the alps and this is our view:
My best friends have also made it to the teleportation place, we are all camping and we have a big shared tent as well with a camp fire going and the food is already waiting for us when we arrive. Cheese fondue! We have some beers and a fun evening.
Saturday: adventure day
We wake up, without any hangover, after the best night sleep of our lives. Time to get active today! After an amazing breakfast of eggs benedict we head off to go top a nearby mountain. After a beautiful walk that was funilly enough pretty much effortless we have lunch at the top with this view:
We head back down and go down to lake Geneva, where we have a swim, drink some beers and see a beautiful sunset:
**Sunday Funday**
We wake up sunday, again without any headache! We teleport ourselves to Italy to have fun in the Dolomites climbing today. It is a beautiful day and we put on the gear and start climbing in the Dolomites.
This is me being very happy during my ideal weekend! We climb all day, eat delicious sandwiches and make it to the top for a beautiful view. We head back down from the mountain to have our last beer for the weekend!
We teleport home straight into bed for a lovely sleep after the perfect weekend!
I guess what I am trying to say is my ideal weekend would be full of fun in the mountains, my closest friends, camping, being outdoors and none of the hassle of traffic jams or hangovers! All photo's are past weekends/vacations of mine together creating the perfect weekend. I am excited to see your ideal weekends!
The Great Unknown
What I have always wondered is what most of us wonder sometimes, and some of us wonder often: What happens when we die? What lies in that great unknown?
Source https://www.istockphoto.com/nl/search/2/image?phrase=afterlife&utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=ADP_image_sponsored&referrer_url=http%3A%2F%2Fpixabay.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%2Fafterlife%2F&utm_term=afterlife
**The Great Question That Has No Answer**
I think what makes it so fascinating as a question is that death is such a common part of all our lives. Everything around us dies until we ourselves eventually die as well. Yet we have no idea what that will be like or what lies beyond. Isn't that just fascinating?
What makes it even more fascinating that even though we have made huge advances in science and can theorize about black holes, life in other places and dimensions, we understand concepts like time etc. But we still haven't got any closer to what happens when our hearts stop beating. Do we just cease to exist? Do we go somewhere? Do we reïncarnate (one of my personal favorites, think of how cool that would be)
Source https://www.istockphoto.com/nl/search/2/image?phrase=afterlife&utm_source=pixabay&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=ADP_image_sponsored&referrer_url=http%3A%2F%2Fpixabay.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%2Fafterlife%2F&utm_term=afterlife
**Questions That Lead To More Questions**
What I think I love about this mystery is that the more you delve into it, the more questions it raises. All good mysteries do this I find. Because if there is anything after we die, what is it then? And won't it be pretty full there now? If we reincarnate how would that work then? How is decided who becomes what? Is something God-driven or random?
We do of course know quite a lot about the physical process of dying, what happens when our bodies wind down and eventually the heart stops beating source . But very few people will find that very fascinating, the interesting question is what, if anything, lies beyond? https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-happens-when-we-die/
**Some of the Theories**
**The Religious Experience** interestingly enough most people on earth believe in this version. The idea that there is some God- controlled afterlife, often determined in niceness by how good you lived your life.
I myself am not religious, but can understand how people take comfort in this idea. Though with me it often invoces questions of: where do all those people go? Is eternity there really eternity (which is pretty long)? What about people from different religions?
**he Scientific Experience** scientist explain that the most common theory is that just as your body ceases to exist, that is it. There are no indications that our consciousness is anything other than something produced by our brains. As the brain is deprived of oxigen, we and who we are cease to exist.
**The Spiritual Experience** I think most people (like myself) that are not religious and find the scientific experience a bit depressing fall into this category. The idea that there is 'something' out there after death, whatever it may be. Energy perhaps or reincarnation.
I find just thinking about this question and mulling it over in my mind brings me no closer to solving this mystery (which would be a bit much to aim for since we humans have been trying that for quite a while) but yet it could bring personal answers about what you think life after death would look like.
Anyway, I hope my mystery topic wasn't too morbid for you, would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on it and wishing you a wonderful last day of the weekend!
Rising Star- Update and New Pack
I have been playing away at Rising Star, which I love! Such a fun game to play. I made more progress since my last update and made enough starbits again to buy another pack- my second one in the game!
What Is Rising Star?
So for those of you that don't know Rising Star is a fun blockchain based game on the Hive chain. You have to build a band, perform and can earn rewards and other things that you need to advance in the game. You can also buy cards that are NFT's to advance. I wrote an article about it earlier: https://www.publish0x.com/understandable-crypto/the-path-to-fame-i-joined-the-rising-star-game-xeldloz
Pack Opening
So I was able to buy my second pack, I love opening packs! Here is what I got and what that was worth:
This is my second Wez (what are the chances right, I own 8 cards haha) but always nice to get some fans. Current market value is 777 starbits on the marketplace
I am really happy with this rare card! It goes for about 7100 starbits on the marketplace currently. Really happy with the fans and skill with this one, brings my ego down nicely!
Final card is this pink guitar whihc goes for about 1350 starbits on the market.
So all in all not bad, I paid 10.000 starbits and got a current value back of 9227 starbits. Not that I will be selling any of these, but it is good to look at the value.
Things to Come
So I will finally be able to do my first Saturday Support! Things are looking good, I am going for the slow and steady approach and I am very happy with that to be honest. Will keep you all up to date!
A Stroll On The Beach In Winter
There is a Dutch tradition called 'uitwaaien' which means to go outside, even when the weather is not so nice and let the wind blow through you and let you forget all your problems. And that was exactly what I needed this weekend. So despite the chilly 5 degrees, the wind and a bit of rain I headed to the beach!
This picture is the reason I love going to the beach in the winter, it is moody, it is empty and I feel in touch with nature. This area of dunes is called Hargen aan Zee, on the Dutch coast in the North-West of the country. I decided to go for a decent walk of a bit more of 7 km.
After walking the first part by the sea it started to rain and combined with the wind that made it pretty cold. I picked up a hot chocolate to go and decided to head a bit further inland to get some tree coverage. Luckily there is plenty of coverage in the dunes, while they still give a beautiful view.
**A Bit of History in the Dunes**
If you look well at the picture above, you will see some pieces of concrete. Those are all part of WWII bunkers from the Germans that are hidden all over the dunes. The Netherlands and their defense along the coast was of great importance to Hitler, who had loads of bunkers built as part of the Atlantikwall, or the defense of the Atlantic coast.
On this map you can see how the Dutch coast has lots of big bunkers, but even more small ones are all over the dunes. I always like being able to go for a walk in nature but also picking up some historical vibes!
At the end of my walk my feet were sore and it was starting to get dark. But it was a lovely day on the beach!
What did you do past weekend?
Spending New Years With The Song I Hate
Another weekend and another engagement topic in the Weekend community on Hive and I was happy to see a topic that I am not familiar with blogging about at all! I think that is the beauty of the engagement topic, it draws you out of your comfort zone and allows you to think outside the box.
Now I love music, but option number 5 about a song that grinds my gears won, because not only do I have a song that grinds my gears, but I have also been forced for half my life to listen to that song at midnight during New Years.
**The Top 2000**
So this needs a bit of a background story, but I live in the Netherlands and there is a tradition that between Christmas and New Year a radio station airs the Top 2000, a hitlist of all the ages compiled by the Dutch public. It is a hugely popular thing, basically everybody is glued to the radio for a week. The grand finale is at midnight on New Years Eve when they start the new year with playing the number one song! And no matter who you celebrate with, this is what everyone will be watching or listening to at midnight. Don't get me wrong I love the Top 2000 and spend the whole week listening to the radio as well, but there is one issue...
**I Hate The Number 1**
The Dreaded Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ
So you can probably guess by now that Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is the song I cannot stand.... I like queen, but I always thought Bohemian Rhapsody was too long, too weird and just not great. The downside is that my country completely disagrees with me because in 23 editions of the Top 2000 it has been the number one 18 times....
So every year while everyone is getting the champagne ready, I am getting ready to listen to the song that grinds my gears for 5mins and 55 seconds, every year again....
Most of my friends now find it hilarious that I don't like this song and will play it even louder at midnight. I guess I am just counting on the change of Dutch population over the years that will surely change voting behavior, right? right?
Anyway there you have it, I hope to find a lot of nice (and maybe some not so nice) music through you all in this weekend engagement! Enjoy the final bit of weekend and good luck this week!
The Antidote: The Negative Effects of Positive Thinking
I have recently been reading The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman, a fascinating read about the negative effects of the whole positivity hype that is going on. For decades now the idea has been, if you put your mind to it you can achieve anything you want. Burkeman shows that this is not the reality and that actually thinking like that can make you feel worse instead of better.
Why Positive Thinking Doesn't Work
According to Burkeman the idea that positive thinking can make you achieve anything can actually make people feel more depressed and down than they were before they started on their path to positive thinking.
Burkeman states that people who start with positive thinking and then don't succeed to become millionaires, the best at their job or whatever it is they want to obtain through positive thinking, become more depressed. How come they are not succeeding while they were promised that positive thinking would work? Are they not positive enough? Not capable of positive thinking?
The Negative Path
Burkeman instead claims to go down the negative path. . His idea is the more we strive for things like happiness, security and confidence the less we achieve them. What does make us happier is to also think about the not so happy things in life, like death and suffering.
This negative path is not one theory or idea, but more a collection of different ideas. In his book Burkeman than goes to explore how different philosphers and cultures around the world include the negative in their daily practices. One of the really cool examples in the book is when he goes to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico, where people live with and celebrate the dead instead of avoiding it.
The only downside to his book that because the negative path is not one theory it would take a thick book to explain the different aspects of all these theories. But The Antidote is not a thick book, which means Burkeman only skims at the surface of those theories. Nevertheless, it is really worth a read!
Have you read interesting theories lately?
Book Review: The Century Trilogy: Captures the 20th Century
I have set myself the challenge to read 52 books for 2022 or 1 book per week for the entire year. Will be interesting to see if I make it but I am well on my way!
The last book I finished was part three of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follet, which all three impressed me.
Source https://carlcotarobles.com/2019/05/31/four-most-interesting-questions-about-ken-folletts-century-trilogy/
**The Trilogy**
Those of you that are familiar with Ken Follet know he writes about historical topics and this trilogy is no exception! The focal point of this trilogy is the 20th century. What Follet always does magnificently is focus on normal people in big histories, giving you a real feel for what it must have been like to live during that time. He does the same in the trilogy and because he follows characters in different countries as well, you get an even more balance picture.
Book 1: The Fall Of Giants
The first book is arguably the best one, so even if you read only one book of the trilogy (they can all be read separately) I would recommend reading this one! In this book the road to and the time during World War I are covered.
Follet follows the history of families from Wales, England, Germany, America and Russia. I like the scope because it means he also covers the Russian revolution, the start of the labour party in England and the effect of losing the war in Germany.
Book Two: Winter of the World
In book two we meet a new generation of personalities, but we stay within the same families. After WW I covered in the first book, we now are going into the rising tensions of the 1930's and World War II. Now it becomes even more interesting with one of our families being German and it is interesting to see how Follet navigates the sensitivities around that topic. He has also smartly integrated some of the families in the books with each other, so it seems less like different chapters and more like one story. Books about WW II will always fascinate me I think, but Follet has done a really good job here.
Book 3: Edge of Eternity
I have literally just put this book down yesterday, so still very fresh. The final book of the trilogy looks mostly at the Cold War, mounting tensions between East and West. It also puts quite a lot of focus on the Kennedy years, which is very interesting. You will also find the crumbling Soviet Union and the Vietnam war in there. The downside of this last book is that some characters really lose credibility, multiple of them become famous which to be fair is very unlikely to happen in anyone's lifetime... He also has difficulty creating likeable Republican characters in the US, which I feel should not be that hard!
Review
In all I would recommend you to read the Trilogy, they are all quite lengthy books but don't be discouraged, it reads really quick! The best book is the first and the last book is the least so you can always choose at every book if you still want to continue.
I look forward to hearing what you are reading!
The Canadian Dream
On Hive this weekend we got given a challenge to talk about firsts: first kiss, first pet, first time to move out or first time to move abroad. I decided to share my adventure of living in Canada!
It All Starts With An Opportunity
When I was studying in the Netherlands during my bachelor at uni there was an option to apply for studying abroad without having to pay extra fees. I applied to go to Canada, the nature and university appealed to me. Obviously hundreds of other students applied as well and there were 2 spots.... But somehow I was one of the lucky two to go and off to Toronto I moved!
I was accepted to York University but went to a small campus of theirs that was bilingual French and English as I could speak both. I moved without knowing much at all, I had gotten a date to move into my dorm room and I had confirmation of the courses I was going to follow but that was about it.
Canadian University Life
Quickly Canadian University life turned out to be quite different than the Netherlands. I lived in a dorm now, nobody in the Netherlands lives at a university dorm, you just live in a house somewhere in a city. My dorm room was tiny, but at least I had one to myself, most were sharing which was something I really didn't want to do!
I ended up in a girl only dorm and let me tell you a hallway of 30 women living together is.... interesting haha especially since many shared a room there were discussions often about noise, visiting boyfriends and shower habits haha.
The awesome thing though was getting to know lots of new people and living with them too. We all ate together at university, as these dorms don't have kitchens. Something I didn't mind as I am not a great cook.
The High Points of Canadian Living
It was super interesting to go to a North American university and get to see some new things: Spirit rallies (to get people excited, involve lots of cheerleaders and music), American Football, Lacrosse, Basketball, Canada Day etc.
I did not become a fan of American Football, but I did like going to basketball games of the Toronto Raptors and going to Niagra Falls, which is pretty close to Toronto. We also went to New York and Washington DC and visited Montreal as well.
It also got cold of course (duh it gets cold in Canada) and I love winter, so got to go ice skating too!
The Lows
But it is never the case that everything is great, and this wasn't the case here either. I think what I found hardest was making Canadian friends. I went in the third year of my studies, by that time most people have set friend groups and Canadians are very friendly but not the easiest to become friends with, their groups can be a bit closed off.
So in the end most Europeans stuck together and formed a friend group. Which was great, we had amazing friendships and many of them still last today, but we did miss out on the Canadian experience a bit because of this.
All us Europeans also started missing our food sorely after a while. We all missed cheese, I dearly missed a potato based cuisine and licorice. The Italians and Spanish missed olive oil and meats and the French missed everything. We ended up starting a little food club and rent a kitchen every now and then to have our own food.
It turned out, our European identities revolved mostly around food haha. It was great fun, but I wondered if we missed out on the true Canadian experience like this by sticking to our own habits.
All in all I had an amazing year in Canada and am still super happy I did it! I had to go back to the Netherlands to finish my studies, but will always remember the Canadian days with a happy heart!
Hopping Around in the Dutch Dunes
Like so many people I wanted to use the new year as a start of more exercise. But unlike I expected I am having great fun with walking this past week! I've discovered some beautiful areas near our home and it has been fantastic, despite winter, to be out and about and I wanted to share some of my walks with you! If you are ever in the Netherlands, we live near a beautiful area of dunes, Schoorl. All pictures are made by myself.
Chilly Beach Walk
On Tuesday we had a visitor and decided to go for a walk. As we are currently in lock down again in the Netherlands there are few other options as well! We decided to go to the beach and have a walk around there and in the dunes.
As you can tell we were a bit cold, but it was nice to be at the beach and a big difference to the summer when it is heaving with people. Since we were pretty exposed and cold on the beach we decided to go a bit further inland for some cover.
This are is also used for discgolf, a funky sport that involves throwing frisbees at big pots in the hope you get them in. Some people were even playing while we walked past. We walked about 7 km, a nice distance. I am still recovering from a pneumonia so we didn't want to go crazy but test how much the lungs would be happy to take
A Glorious Day In The Dunes
Today (Thursday) we decided to go for another walk to a different part of the dunes, near Schoorl. And it was a truly glorious winter day! The sun even came out and it was cold, but so beautiful!
Loved the light falling over the heather here. We decided to go for a walk just in the dunes, skipping the beach. And it was quite the exercise because in the dunes you keep going up and down and you have to walk through a lot of loose sand. As you can see in this picture:
I had a good experience after Tuesday, with only a bit of muscle pain around the lungs so we decided to go for a longer walk this time and managed to walk over 12 km before our feet got tired and as sleet started to fall from the sky we realized we wanted to go home and have a cup of tea.
So Far So Good
So far I am really enjoying a lot more walks. Of course I am still in my vacation time so I have a lot more time to do these things, but will be happy to keep up these walks in our weekends when we go back to work!
Also love to showcase some of the beauty of the dunes in the Netherlands!
Thanks @Jehoshaphat for the sponsorship, much appreciated!
Bearly Able To Knit
As a kid I always did very poorly at any types of crafts and in high school I nearly failed design and technology after making a desk lamp that never worked and lighting a project on fire accidentally..... In the end I got a pity pass.
But Even I Have Some Creativity in Me
I have spend the past days trying to figure out what the hell that I do is creative and I asked everyone in the house to help me think. It was the boyfriend (bless him) that at some point said: well you knit sometimes don't you?
And I do! It is a lockdown hobby that I picked up when we had a curfew and couldn't go anywhere.
And see here my current project! You will say but Pauline what is that bear doing with that miniature scarf? Well, I quickly found out I had neither the skill nor the patience to knit a human sized scarf. I tried but it always had mistakes or was abandoned by me after about a week because I just don't have patience.
Knitting for Bears
At the same time I was having a little bear issue. You see my bear (Beri) and I have been inseparable for 31 years. However, Beri is having a problem at the connection of his arms, the fabric is getting super frail there. And so I thought why not knit him a scarf that can keep the arms together through pressure? And voila....
Now since our visit to the UK we picked up my boyfriends old bear (just named bear) and so now we are in lockdown again I decided to knit him a scarf as well. A nice red one to suit his fur as you can see in the first picture.
I guess it just goes to show that even the least creative among us can be a tad creative sometimes! But I look forward a lot more to seeing your actual creativity!
Oh and I have decided to tackle the human sized scarf once more! Here a sneak peak..
Opening My First Rising Star Pack!
The moment has finally arrived for me to open my first Rising Star pack! I have been saving for those 10,000 starbits to buy it for quite a while but I finally got to the magical moment!
**What Is Rising Star?**
So for those of you that don't know Rising Star is a fun blockchain based game on the Hive chain. You have to build a band, perform and can earn rewards and other things that you need to advance in the game. You can also buy cards that are NFT's to advance. I wrote an article about it earlier: https://www.publish0x.com/understandable-crypto/the-path-to-fame-i-joined-the-rising-star-game-xeldloz
**Opening My First Pack**
So I finally had gotten the 10,000 starbits necessary to buy a pack with 3 cards. I got super excited and opened:
I was really stoked to get Carlito to be honest! He is really giving me a big boost. The Starbox is also nice and the Buster I guess just kind of happened.
But for my progression into the game it was huge! Instead of having to start my grind every day with Busking making pittance, I can now start way higher with the missions, make more and evolve more quickly! My home screen now looks like this:
So that is much better, especially the fans really allow me to progress!
**The Value of the Cards**
I have spent 10,000 starbits on these cards.
The Busker is worth about 1500 starbits on the marketplace
Carlito goes for about 7500
The Starbox is actually super new and only 15 have been issued! So there is only one on the market for about 45,000 starbits! Which is making me wonder if I should try and sell it? I am so new to the game I am not really sure what would be wise.... so would love to hear any and all advice you have!
@Plint
