One week progress
Hello guys, new week is here, and I wish you all a great one! For me, it should be an exciting and good one, but we will see. Now I wanted to talk about the past week and my exercise progress.
I already wrote that I am back to exercising after so long. I am not gonna lie, the first week was tough. Specially because there were exercises that were so hard to me that I couldn't do almost at all. I didn't expect that (funny, because why haven't I?) so it was a bit demotivating. But I keep going, convincing myself that the fact that I can feel every muscle I move, means that something is happening, and there will be progress.
I wasn't hoping too much that there will be a huge difference (or any at all) because it's only one week, and the first one, so I didn't do too much. But I thought I saw some difference, and I was hoping that the numbers will be at last a little different, just because it would be great motivation to keep going. I was so happy this morning when I saw that there is a difference. Maybe I didn't measure all very well this or previous time, I am never sure I measured the same way. But it doesn't matter because this is just motivation to keep going, I am far away from my goal yet.
There was difference in all measurements on my surprise. Not big in all, of course, but it's something. From 0.5 cm (these are probably not so accurate, but like I said, it's not about numbers), to 2 cm (here I am sure there was some change, I couldn't make that big mistake). Biggest progress was shaping my legs, and this is first time I am doing it, and I used 2 videos for that, that are "quick burn" so I suppose that is why.
I can't say I am on diet, because I don't restrict myself from anything that I want to eat at the moment (except for chips, this is my guilty pleasure). But I do eat more healthy than before. I added much more fruits and veggies, and not eating pasta and potatoes each day (but I still eat it, a lot)😁 I have smoothies and fresh juice and I enjoy it a lot. Here are some photos of orange and pomegranate juice and also mango and banana smoothie that I have made. I also added one date in the smoothie.
Because of the great progress (for me, it's great), I already made spread for workout for this week. I just left out Sunday because I am not sure yet will I do rest day or rest day will be Monday. I don't expect much from next week, however. Just because that first change is already made, and now it will take more time and more work to keep making progress.
I don't have a scale so I don't know if I lost any weight, but that doesn't change much for me, because my goal is shape, not weight. I don't mind having more weight if it's muscles not fat. And my main goal is losing lower belly fat, which is probably hardest to do. But I think I should take more proteins at some point, just so that I don't lose more weight if I continue with exercise. And when I go home I can see what scale says, just to compare it. But we will see. For now I am happy with results.
All photos I used in this article (and lead photo) are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Saturday blues
I don't know is it rain today, Saturday night, or me being alone, but blues are here. I do like to be alone, but sometimes I feel like I am all alone in the entire world. But music makes it better. I played MTV club big weekend tunes, so the vibe is good. I also finished exercise and I feel better. Actually, I also had medicine that could mess me up even more, but it won't last long. I almost never had medicines, so when I do, they hit me hard. Like if I take one brufen for the pain, I am already on seventh cloud
Anyway, I was planning to write something else today, but the mood just wasn't there, and even though yesterday I wrote about pushing yourself, things like this are not something to force yourself to do. At last, I don't like it. So I decided to just write about today, and how I feel now, and whatever cross my mind.
I think this photo fits "Saturday blues". It was made on my school trip to Greece, and I wasn't sad at all at the time, but it's just how the photo looks, I guess. But it's one of my favorite photos. I was taken by my friend. And also for some reason also reminds me of movie "Life of Pi", and Pi was one of my nicknames (just spelled differently).
Saturday wasn't all that bad, I have to say. I was productive, and finished some chores, as well as some study. Also, one of my friends got engaged. Looks like I will have 3 weddings this year to attend. My hopes are for BCH to go up, so I don't become broke hah 😁 Just kidding, but joke aside, I wouldn't mind some extra money. I was doing well on noise, but now, that's not possible. I use this and hive, but it's not consistent. If you have any good site to recommend me (it would be best if focus is on the photos), feel free to do it in the comments.
To conclude, I wanted to say it's okey to feel low sometimes, even if it's for no specific reason. We all have blue days, and this Saturday was like that for me. At these moments I mostly enjoy music, and just vent out, it helps. Here is the song that I listened today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5YOhcAof8I
But some sad songs may bring you even more down. It's up to you what works best for you. I would sometimes also watch a TV show, to make my mind turn off and not think of anything.
Well, thanks for reading this mess of a post. From blues, MTV, medicine, weddings, to BCH hah. Just one of those days. I am sure most of you can understand, if not relate. But song I share is nice, so at last something good from this post.
The photo that I used is original and photo of me. Good night and happy Sunday!
Sometimes you need to push yourself
I wrote already about my plans to work out this month. Yesterday it was my rest day. I wasn't sure should I do 3 or 4 days in a row and then brake, but because I haven't been working out so long, and my muscles were a little sore yesterday, I decided to make the 4th day my rest/break day. Reason more for this was adding 2 new videos to my exercise routine on Tuesday. That day I basically skipped them completely and just did a couple of rows, and then I was already in pain. It's because I was doing new videos for muscles that I haven't used before, and I could felt it right away. On Wednesday I kind of did those videos better, but still very poorly, and this caused my muscles to be a little sore on Thursday. Today, after the rest day and me having a orange (this helps me with sore muscles), I was fine and ready to work out again.
I usually focus mostly on my abs, but this time around, since I am so out of shape, I do exercise for more parts of the body: abs, legs, arms (and back). I don't go to the gym, because for what I do, and what I want to accomplish, I don't need gym. Also, for some reason, I don't like other people around me, while I do exercises. This is why I only watch YouTube videos to help me, and from equipment, I only have 2 dumbbells, 2.5 kg each. I used them only for my arm exercises. Here are the exercises and videos that I am currently doing:
8 minute abs - Brasil 2014 edition (passion4proffession YouTube channel)
5 Lower Ab Isolation Exercises That Will Make Your Lower Belly Fat Cry (blogilates YouTube channel)
Muffin top Shredder Workout (blogilates YouTube channel)
Tank Top Arms Workout - Shoulders, Arms & Upper Back Workout (FitnessBlender Youtube channel)
Two videos that I added from blogilates - for saddlebags and inner thighs
30 seconds plank
I do workout in the evening, before dinner. Today, by the coincidence, I ate lightly for both breakfast and lunch, and by the time of my work-out routine, I was hungry. All I was thinking about dinner, and I consider making something that I didn't plan, and that wasn't so healthy, and also, skipping my work-out. I was comforting myself with words, that I just started exercising again, and that one more day of rest won't change much. But deep down I know it actually would, and it would also mess up my progress in the first seven days, and also maybe even cause me to skip another day. So I said to myself, "You want delicious unhealthy dinner? You are gonna work for it first, and earn it!". I wanted to do my previous routine, without two extra videos, but as I was doing exercise, I felt I could do more, and I did it all. And guess what? With one day of break, today I was more ready to do exercise, and I did all of them the best so far. I pushed myself as much as I could, and I was very happy and proud of myself that I didn't give up.
Best part of it all, by the time I finished work out, I didn't have time to make the dinner I planned to, and had to go with another, but more healthy option. I was very happy and proud, I pushed myself and didn't quit. This will also help me to have better progress when I do my seven days measurements, which will motivate me to do more and keep going.
Sometimes we have to be hard on ourselves and push our limits, so that we can make progress and reach out goals.
All photos used in this article are free photos from https://unsplash.com/
Thank you for reading my post, and good night (it you are reading this at night time).
Three easy breakfast recipes
Hello guys, recently I am more focused on food and what I am making to eat. Trying to eat more healthy and make more food instead of just buying premade meals or semi-made meals. I want to share three easy and quick recipes that I make for breakfast. Sometimes I just get bored by eating same things, sandwiches all the time, and have no ideas, so I decided to make a list with things I can make, so that I can keep diverse in my meals. It's nothing special, I am not that good to cook, and it's probably nothing you haven't made already, but it's with a twist.
Eggs
First one - of course, eggs. I don't know for the rest of the world, but I would say it's one of the popular meals for breakfast here. I bet most of you made it at last once. There are many ways to make eggs and I love all of them, but for some reason I don't made them so often. However, recently I started to make them more. What I do is fry onions first (you can also use leek, but I like onions more). Then you can add bacon sliced in little cubes if you eat meat. Once it's fired enough, you add eggs. I mix eggs separately, and I add little milk in the mixture, and salt or other seasoning that you like. This way eggs are more healthy for me, because I ate them just like that, I don't add ketchup or cheese, because they are already tasty enough. You can add other veggies if you like, but this is a simple twist that will make your eggs more tasty.
Oat meal
There are many oat meals in bags that you can prepare easy with water or milk, but they are not as healthy as you think. They contain sugar, and even tough they are maybe more tasty, it's much better to make your own. I like to make it with warm milk. I let them stay a few minutes to get soaked. If you like it sweet, you can add any kid of fruits that you have, you can add frozen fruits, or, my favorite for oatmeal - dry fruit. I usually add dried grapes and cranberry. Other than this I add nuts and seeds, that I have at the time (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts,...). But keep in mind, nuts are very caloric, if you are on a specific diet.
Salad
Currently, my favorite - salad. For this one there are so many options, specially in summer when it's season for veggies here. I will share one that I make now. It's a simple salad with lettuce, corn, tuna and sour cream (you can also use sour milk or yogurt). Because tuna is already in oil, I don't add any other seasoning or oil. It's very fresh and delicious and yet not too basic, and it can fill you up depending on how much you make.
Yes, I know, nothing revolutionary here,but it's all kind of healthy and very easy to make, just mixing, no specific measurements. And we all need ideas sometimes, no matter how simple they are, it's good to make change and try something new.
All photos I used are original and taken by me.
Thanks for reading my post :)
Bullet journal - April (plans and goals)
Another month is here, sixth day already. I couldn't post this before, even though it was done. I was home, and when I am home time just flies, and I don't have so much free time. It's something happening all the time, going somewhere, someone coming,... But now I left home and have more time. I wanna talk about my goals and plans for April.
Here is my bullet journal spread for April. My inspiration was a video by Shayda Campbell. The only difference I did was adding a color background. I did this because for some reason I expected it was a negative black and white photo, but while doing it I realized it would be impossible to add black background because steams were black, and they would bland with background. This is why I added purple, and I am happy with how it looks.
On the next page I did a calendar spread, where I can add important dates and have a reminder of some bigger things and when they are happening, like Easter. And on the same page, I will write about movies & TV shows that I watched, books that I read, plays that I saw, and also some main goals for the month.
Next ones are trackers. I do a habit tracker each month and I think it's a great thing to motivate yourself, but also to see how exactly productive you are. Under that one, I have expense tracker. I think this one is very useful and good for everyone. The best way to save money and menage money in a good way is if you track it and know how much you spend and on what. Beside these too, this month I also have calendar for workout. Usually I make this on separate paper, but this time I decided to include it in my journal. Next to it, I have my measurements, and I do it every week to see progress. Other than this, I just write daily tasks and mark if I did it, if not, I transfer it to the next day to do it.
My goals for March were to be more active here and on hive, and even though I wasn't quite happy, I was much more active than before. For April, I wanted to write each day, but since I was home, I already missed a few days. Therefor, my goal for April will be to make 15 articles at last, and 10 posts on hive. I don't want to make any earning goals, because things are much different now, market goes up and down, but it's still very low. I would like to sell some BCH by the end of April if price is good.
My other goals for April that will be a big focus for me is workout. I need to get back in exercise mod. I wasn't active at all during winter, and I am out of shape completely. Also, I have one project to do by the end of April. I don't know how much time it will take, but I hope I can finish by the end of the month.
Elections in Serbia
Today was Election day in Serbia. Citizens voted for a new president but also for a parliament, and in some places, also, there were local elections. Voting is a citizen's right, but also a duty. I completely agree with it. Everyone should vote, not matter for whom. Women were fighting for so long to have right to vote, I say I own to them to be able today to vote. And I use my right when ever I can. But today, these elections are very important because we are fighting against a dictator that has been in authority for 10 years. The only reason he is still "on the throne" is because many people are manipulated and brainwashed because he controls 90% of media, or they simply have to vote because they are afraid of losing a job. Other than my brainwashed grandparents who are blindly believing media, I don't know anyone who is in his right mind and happy with this president, unless they have some huge advantage of it (like good job and money).
In the past 10 years there were so many scandals and just when you think there is no more, there is. Just when you think it can't be worse - trust me, it can. I personally don't like politics, and I am not interested in it at all, but it's something that, like it or not, affects everyone's lives. If you live in a good and organized country, politics is not something you need to worry about. Unfortunately, here, when I hear all the nonsense and criminal and lies, and afraid blackmailed people... you can't avoid it and say that you don't care about it. Imagine your president owns all media, and he is constantly all over the TV, that it's ridiculous, so what he did is use that in his campaign. You can hear everyone complaining about seeing him everywhere, as if he is everywhere, even in the fridge, so he makes video where he is in the fridge. Yes, this is not a joke.
All you hear all the time is people complaining about many things, about life here, about whet great leader does, and yet, he is still most voted. How? Firstly, not many more than 50% of voters actually vote. And then, cheating, paying people, blackmailing people, dead people voting, people voting multiple times, and so on... Today during elections, in many places you could find people with voter lists, checking who voted. Even underage kids, who were probably paid $10 and sandwich to do so. It's really, really sad, and I am so angry, because I feel hopeless and like I can't do anything in a situation that simply isn't right, fair, moral. Even before results today, something odd happened. Republican election commission said that they will not say preliminary results today, and they will not say anything more tonight. This never happened in the last 20 years or so. Another extremely odd thing is, that there were crowds in many, many places in Serbia and in Belgrade, yet somehow turnout is slightly bigger than previous years. Even an hour after polling places were closed, there are still people waiting to vote, because the crowd is so big.
I can't say I expect too much from these elections, I wouldn't be surprised if they steal them again, but I am hoping we will have a second round. If not, I imagine protests will happen again, and I will be among them. Not because I want to, but because I have to. I don't want to live in a country where mafia and criminals are in power, and where one man acts as if he owns everyone and everything.
Photo I used as lead image is from Unsplash.
Thanks for reading my post ^^
April first (March summary)
I miss school days when this day mean only one thing and that was a JOKE. As someone that truly loves jokes, I was enjoying this day to the fullest and I always tried to make some jokes with my friends. Nowadays, I certainly don't think it's possible, since somehow I think everyone would be aware of it and joke would field. Buck back in the school days there were so many jokes and so many people to joke with.
I think that the last time I did joke on this day was probably 7 years ago, when I was supposed to go to the concert with my friend. I texted him that I can't come, and that I will give him a ticket to go with someone else. Of course that was a joke, and he trusted me at first, but soon I said I was joking, and that I am coming. It was actually the first official day of our friendship, and we lasted as friends ever since.
Today I did some jokes but nothing big, and I saw some jokes, but all on social media to trick people who aren't aware of the date. Also, no one tricked me, so I guess I did outgrow April the first. Did you?
In March, my plan was to be more active here, and I can say I was semi-successful with that. I made one break, and it was kind of hard to start again, but I came back. I was more active than ever here, and I am happy with my earnings. I earned 0.059 BCH in March. I say around, because I didn't track tipping. This was way better than noise for the same month. Since January, I basically don't earn there, but I am still active, almost every day.
Other than noise and read, I post on Ecency. This wasn't my most successful month there earning wise, but I was much more active than before, which is great. I discovered other hive platforms, and start to use some of them too. Like Actifit, which tracks your steps, and you get rewarded for being active. I used some other sites as well, but all of them are low earnings sites, and I will stop using all of them in April ( I want to reach minimum on a few, before stopping). Since I am more active again, I will compare earnings, and I will track my monthly earnings again.
My other plan for March was to get into NFT, but I have to say I failed this one completely. I only watch few videos, and in the first glance it looked too complicated. I might be wrong, and I still want to create all accounts needed for NFT. I will read more about it and watch more videos, so by the end of April I will decide if it is for me or not. Also, I wanted to try some NFT games if not creating NFT, and that also stays for April. If you have some good channels about NFT, do recommend them, please.
Over all, March wasn't as I hopped, but it is a start, and I hope it will get better from now on. Market is also green last few days, so I think better days are finally coming.
Photo I used is original, and taken by me. It is edited in Snapseed application.
PS: I know it's April 2nd already, but I had this article from yesterday, saved as draft, just wasn't published. That's why in the first part I talk about April Fools' Day.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly"
"The little prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is one of my favorite books of all time. It's written in the way that a child can read it, but also has many levels, and it can be read more times while growing up, and each time discover something new and understand the book even more. Many popular quotes are from this book, among them, the one that I used in the title: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye".
Since I like to draw, I already have one "art wall" in my room, but for a while I wanted to draw something more. I decided it will be Little prince, but problem was the place of it. I don't have many more "good" walls in my room for drawing, and since I imagined it will be Little Prince on his planet, I wanted it to be above my bed. Above my bed is slope, not right ceiling, but still, soon I realized it would be too hard for me to do it on that height, and because of the slope colors will drop to my bed. In the end, I decided I will do it across my bed, even thought I had other plans for that little piece of wall.
The process was long, I don't even know how many days it took, but I didn't do too much each day, and I wasn't in a hurry and wanted to take my time. I used pen first to draw planet and little prince, and I was in luck because paint on my walls are washable, so if you draw on them, you can also wipe it off. Drawing a circle that big on the wall took time, and I am glad I could erase mistakes. Because the reference photo had very colorful sky above little prince, I decided to do it with watercolors because they are easy to mix, but it's not the same to mix them on paper and wall, of course. The result wasn't how I imagined, but I was happy with it. I did make a mistake, maybe you can guess where it is? I will fix it, eventually.
For now, I only plan to do a little drawing on the wall behind my bed, but it will be much easier to do, and it will be just black silhouettes. I will probably do it this summer. Other than that, I already have my "art wall" and I can add things there, but rest of the walls are safe, for now :D Beside this I also did three other wall arts, but not in my house. I do like to draw and paint, but the thing with wall art is that it is much harder because you are drawing everything big, and you need to take care about proportions, which is hard when you do big pieces. At last, for me it is.
Photos that I included in this article are original and taken by me (or my sister, because I am on the one).
Thanks for reading my post ^^
Theater is working again normally
Since the pandemic started I went to theater two times, but it was while there were measures in force, there were more people and masks were necessary. It was okay at the time to visit it, but still, it wasn't like before. Tonight, finally, I was able to visit theater again, normally, like before. No masks, no measures, no worry. Even though it wasn't a big theater in capital city, but my city culture center, or some famous actors, I enjoyed it a lot. And by coincidence, I knew the main actor.
The play was about love, mostly, life, relationships, man and woman. It was a drama/comedy, and one of the three actors was really funny and made the audience laugh multiple times, but all of them were very good in my opinion. I didn't visit this cultural center in a while, so I was pleasantly surprised that they changed chairs, and now they are very comfortable. Also, since this place is mostly for movies and some happenings, and not real theater, I was surprised how well they did the scene and organized everything.
Acting is one of my loves and passions, and I was doing amateur acting while I was in primary and high school. I never thought of it as a job and carrier, I wasn't that good, but I really enjoyed this hobby, and it was a good way for me to practice speech and be more loud, since I talk very quietly by nature. If I were to chose acting as carrier, I always imagined acting in one of my favorite theaters, because I always appreciated more theater actors, then movie actors. There is no redo in theater, if you make mistake you need to improvise, you need to be very concentrated to that audience and their reaction doesn't affect you, you need to remember all the lines all the time ( and not just yours, but others that have scene with you) and no matter how many times you play same play, it's never the same.
It was amazing to be in the theater again and enjoy the play, and I already started searching for what can I watch next in Belgrade, because there are many theaters and more plays to chose from. Before pandemic, I had some plays I wanted to see, but now repertoire changed, so I am not sure will I see all of them, but I am sure the new ones are also good. I like small scenes more, but also during pandemic they were closed, and plays that were regularly in small scenes, they were moved to big scenes, but with less audience.
Anyways, thank you for reading my post and good night :)
Photos that I used are original, and taken by me.
Travelling by train
Ever since railway was working again and fixed, I started traveling by train, rather than bus. In this article I will write about few pros and cons for travelling by the train here, in Serbia. Before, railways were old and bad, and so were the trains, they often broke downs as well, and they were really slow. But a few years back, they fixed it, and there are new trains now, much better, new, more comfortable. At that moment travelling by bus and train was pretty much the same in time, so I decided to try train, and even though there were some cons, and they still are, I decided to stick with train, and here is why. I am comparing it only to bus travel here, not car.
Pros for travelling by train:
More space - I didn't have much trouble with space in bus either, but no doubt, there is much more space in train, there are more options where to sit, and even 4 chairs with little table. You have more space for stuff as well.
Less expensive - Train is much cheaper than bus for the same distance, plus, you don't have to pay for your baggage (in bus you pay for each suitcase that you don't carry with you to the seat)
No breaks - train stops at stations, some have more, some have fewer stations (fast train stops only at bigger places) but other than that, there are no breaks. Bathroom is available in train.
No reservations - this can be a pro and a con as well. I always had trouble with seats in bus, coz someone sites by the number or ticket, someone don't and then people make trouble. There is no reservations in train, so you can sit where ever you want, but this can be problematic in time of the holidays because there is so many people and you need to go early to have seat.
No traffic - some trains are crossing so you may wait for that to happen, but usually it's predicted by the schedule. Other then that there is no traffic or waiting for other stuff.
Beautiful views - trains usually don't go through the city, but pass by them, and the route I go by has wonderful nature and views.
Cons for travelling by train:
No internet - even though the train has its own Wi-Fi, it's not working of course, and the network is really weak on the railway and there are many tunnels.
Problems - if train brakes, all the other will be stopped as well, and there is not much you can do before it's fixed. The railway is outside of cities and sometimes even far way from the road, so you can be stuck in one place for hours.
Reaching main station - in Belgrade, even thought they moved main station years ago, city transport is not yet well-connected with it. You can either change few buses, or go 0,5 - 1 km by foot. It is not too much, I know, but if you carry a lot of stuff, it is.
Schedule - there are not too many departures and arrival in a day, you need to organize your time well if you have 2 way tickets. And trains are sometimes late.
Two-way ticket - ticket for your return is only valid for 14 days, on shorted distances even less.
With all pros and cons, I decided to go by the train, and I used bus only 2 or 3 times in the mean time, due to some specific reason. Otherwise, I always recommend train, and most people that I know use it and they are happy with it.
Now days, very popular subject is new very fast train. I plan to travel with it soon, and if I do, I will share my experience with it with you.
Today I went home by train, and all photos I used in this article are original and taken today and edited by me. Thank you for reading my post!
Getting hooked to a TV show
Survivor is a popular American TV show that came to Serbia in 2008/2009. At the time I really loved shows of that type, like Ninja warriors, Wipeout, Fort Boyard and similar. These are shows where individuals or teams compete in interesting sport and mind games. Even though Survivor classifies as a reality TV show, it was far different from all other reality TV shows here. But at the time even others weren't so bad like they are now, full of fights, explicitly, curses, immorality, vulgarity and uncultured people. Survivor had a very different concept and all drama was in sport spirit and to win.
In survivor there are two tribes taken to some exotic seaside place (like the Philippines, Panama,...) without basically anything to help them live there, and they compete in teams or as individuals presenting teams for rewards like rice (oh yeah, this is a big reward for them), fire, fish,... or immunity, so they don't have to expel one of their teammates. With time things changes and two tribes becomes one, or they mix... it depends on season and rules at the time. I am competitive, and I like sports, and this is why I like this type of show, where the main thing is competing and surviving in the wild and not drama. It's also different from other reality TV shows because we see one episode per day and not live streams all day with cameras all around them. They do show some fights, but being apart from family and friends and in such hard conditions, while competing, is hard enough, so it's expected not everyone will get along and be happy all time, but focus is not on drama but games.
After 4 seasons, Survivor stopped broadcasting here and making new seasons. Now it's back after 10 years, it's back with a new season. After so long, I am watching something on TV live (not live like it's broadcasting at real time, but waiting for each episode day by day), and not just streaming shows. I have to say I stared to enjoy it a lot, and even have little ritual and make rice pudding to enjoy the show. It's not the best show in the world, but as someone who like sports I like to watch people compete, specially when it requires a lot of virtues, like good physical fitness, good handling in the wild, good communication, and good mental strength (because you are away from everyone beside teammates and competes, in the wild, with no communication to anyone else).
Previous seasons had unknown people from the Balkans or VIPs also mixed from few countries, but this time they decided to split teams to Serbia and Croatia, even though I am guessing later on they will be all mixed anyway. I have favorites from both teams, and usually I support the one that is losing, so it becomes more interesting :D, But in general, for now, I have to cheer for red team :D
All in all, this is something that I am currently watching at night before bed, and I have to say I am getting hooked and having some favorites already. I am interested to see will my prediction be good, or someone completely else wins it, because it is still early to say, and in this type of shows it's hard to tell, you never know.
Thanks for reading my post, good night :)
//All photos used in this article (including thumbnail) are original and captured by me//
Shortest day in a year
When I say this, I don't mean the shortest day by daylight hours, but by hours in general. This is because last night we moved the clock one hour backwards. I know it's common in some part of the world, but it's not done in the same time, and it's not done in the entire world. The reason behind this is to have an hour more of daylight in summer, so we have sun until 8 o'clock in summer. But also, in the winter, clock in moved one hour forward and daylight is very short, but also it's not dark in 8 in the morning. We move the clock during the last weekend in March, at 2 am Sunday morning. And also same thing happens in last weekend of October.
Some people may argue this, and think it's just moving clock, and you don't lose an hour of time, but technically you do lose it. For example, if you plan to lay down in 12 and get up in 8, you will sleep 7 hours. Yes, you can go to bed earlier, or get up later, because it's the weekend, but you do lose one hour. For me, it doesn't make much difference, today I just went to the walk a bit later because I knew the sun will be out an hour more than yesterday, and it actually worked well for me. And also in the winter I don't mind having an hour more to sleep, hah. Though I wish it wasn't so dark so early during the day in the winter. But I do know that some people take this very bad, and it affects their body, it's not just about an hour more or less.
All in all, I had a nice day today, I was outside, enjoying nature, nice weather, spring, and some positive energy in the air. Kids laughing and playing, dogs running, bees working... It's really beautiful to see nature waking up. I also look forward to longer daylight, and it will be longer each day till June 22. I am glad that I used it today, because even thought today temperature was high, and it's predicted for next days as well, believe it or not, they also predict show next weekend. Snow in April isn't unusual here in the past few years, and it usually last only a day, but still I was hoping I would have a nice weekend at home, enjoying outside. On the other hand, it's always amazing to see spring blossoms with snowflakes all over it, and how much nature is amazing. To think that tiny flowers can survive such hard weather when nice weather should already be here. Just hope it won't be big minus, because that can hurt fruits that has started to grow.
Hope you all had great weekend as well and I wish you great week in advance :)
PS: Photo I used is mine, its big clock in my home :)
Exercising again after a year isn't easy
I can't remember when was the last time I exercised, it feels like it was more than a year ago, but it was probably last summer. But thing is, I gained more weight than ever. It's mostly because in winter I had almost no need to go out, and I went out only when I had to and when there was snow, which wasn't often. And there were a lot of holidays, and amazing food, and it all lead to this. I was shocked when I measure myself. I knew I gained weight, but all my scopes were bigger (hands, thighs, waist, but...) and some quite bigger.
I already decided to start walking, just because in general is good, and all winter I wasn't active, but also in other to maybe help me get in shape again. I already walked 3 days in last 4 days. Yesterday only I didn't walk, because I did exercise. The thing with me and walk is, they are so time-consuming, and usually boring to me, because in a short time I can walk through the entire park, and then I have to go again to walk more, because it's not too big. And honestly, I can walk so much, and I don't feel like I am actually doing anything and like it has some point (I know it does, but it just feels that way).
This is why I prefer exercise. I can feel my body and feel my muscles, and something happening. And sometimes, if I do too much, I can feel my entire body, all day tomorrow because it all hurts :D Like yesterday, I did exercise after so long, and I didn't even do too much, I did 4 videos for 3 different part of body, but since it's been so long, today I have sore muscles of course. Nonetheless, I will continue, I just skipped today because I don't want to make it worse.
How I exercise?
I don't go to the gym, because I don't need to. All things I do I can do from home. I know some people use equipment there and that make sense, but for me I don't have need for any of it. Going to gym can also be motivation for some people, but again, not for me.
I used some applications that have video exercise in it, and that have prepared each day for you and what you should do. These are not bad, and if you are just starting out it might be a good place to start, because they have beginner programs. I stopped using them because I end up with too many apps for each part of the body and also some don't match in break days, and I just wasn't perfect for me, but overall I think they are good. If you want to find them, you can just search for "30 days ... challenge".
YouTube's videos turned out to be the best option for me. What I do is add all my videos to the same YouTube playlist, and then just each day chose which one I do that specific day. Some I do each day, some I mix and change. I usually make a table with days, and write down which ones will I do that specific day, when is break... This is a nice way to keep track of it all, and also how much exercise will last each day. I like p4p channel and also blogilates, so you can check them out if you want. And also I did Chloe Ting challenges, but I just did videos that I liked the most, I didn't do the whole thing.
Some tips at the end
Start slowly - Don't push yourself to do too much right away, do it only if you can. Because you will give up fast, thinking you can't do it. Start small and then move your boundaries.
Have break - First I thought it would be best to just exercise each day and have no break at all, but that's not true. Your muscles need a break, and so do you. Enjoy it.
Do more - once your exercise become so easy that you can do so easy, it's time to change it. Go to the next level
Diet and water - the best way to see the results is having a good diet and eat healthy, but I don't do it, and I don't know much about it, so this is up to you. But do drink a lot of water
Motivation - motivation is important when it comes to exercise, so think why you do it and what is your goal. Once it becomes a habit it will be easier for you, but you will need motivation to get you through it
Note that I am not a trainer of any kind, and this is all based on my experience, not my professional knowledge. I will maybe keep you updated how my exercise is going. I did my measurements, so maybe I will share my end result with you.
Thanks for reading my post !
"Bombing for peace"
23 years ago, on March 24, bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO started. Bombing lasted for 78 days, and it was ended on June 10th. Bombs fell almost everyday. Reason was war for Kosovo territory. Many lives were lost, exact number is unknown, but around 2000 soldiers and civilians lost their lives in bombing attacks, just Yugoslav, none NATO soldiers. Among those civilians, there were 78 children. They targeted government and some important buildings in order to destabilize the country's infrastructure (bridges, hospitals, airport, schools, embassy...). Even today, in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, in the city center, you can see buildings destroyed in 1999 by NATO bombs.
At the time, I was very little, little older than 3 years, and of course, I wasn't aware of the seriousness of the situation at all, and didn't know what was happening. But I do remember the sound of sirens. Here is the At the time, I was very little, little older than 3 years, and of course, I wasn't aware of the seriousness of the situation at all, and didn't know what was happening. But I do remember the sound of sirens. Here is the sound if you want to hear it, but with all my heart, I hope you will never experience it in the real life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58kUN-TJJY
Also in upcoming years I heard stories about that many times, and become more aware of what was happening, but also I saw it as something normal, we were bombed and that was it, but it was later when I grow up more, that I realized how serious it was and how terrifying it was to live at that time, in constant fear every day. How they searched for safer places to stay while attacks are happening, like basements and more hidden places. No one that I know didn't lose life at the time, but there was a bomb that fell very close to my home.
You may say it was a long time ago, and it's a history now, but people who survived it doesn't see it that way. This was only one of many bombing and wars that happened since WWII, and in this time when everyone is talking about war in Ukraine I want to ask you to also acknowledge all other wars that happened, and all other innocent people that lost their lives in someone else's battles.
If we are for peace, then we are for peace all the way and for everyone. All lives matter and let's hope this war in Ukraine is the last one happening, because it's really devastating to see things like this still happening in very advanced civilization, in the 21st century.
There are no winners in war, let's pray for peace for everyone.
Cook with me #1 - Asian food
Hey guys! Today I wanted to share one recipe with you. I want to make a disclaimer right away, I am not a cook, I just make food that I like for me, and these are just things that I like to make and that are easy for me to make and with my cooking abilities.
The dish I want to share with you today is kind of an Asian food, though it's not a specific recipe that I found, but a mix of few recipes and combination that was most fitting for me, so I will mention which parts you can change based on what you like more.
Let's start with ingredients that you will need:
veggies: leek, carrots, cabbage (you can add more or substitute some of these if you don't like them, with zucchini, other types of cabbage...)
for sauce: soya and sweet-sour sauce (you can add something more spicy if you like too), flour, honey
meat: chicken meat, but this is also optional
noodles
and peanuts!
For the sauce you will mix honey, flour, soya and sweet-sour sauce, and water, to make it liquid and smooth. I don't have specific measurements, but it also depends on your taste so you can make how you like it and amount that you want. This is how it should looks :
If you are adding meat, prepare it first. Here I put chicken meat in flour and salt, cut it in small pieces, and fried it. When its close to be done you can also add some seasoning and peanuts, if you like.
Next are veggies. Beside three main veggies that I put (carrot, cabbage and leek) I also added a little bit of frozen mix for Asian food, this is also optional, and like I mentioned you can add some other veggies that you like.
While you are preparing veggies, you can put noodles to cook on the side. I have chosen rice noodles, but again, it comes to what you like the most.
When veggies are done, add chicken and noodles in it, and then add sauce and cook for few minutes more, mixing it so it all blends nicely.
And voila! It's done:
It doesn't look fancy, but it tastes so good, and it makes you full. Reason why I like food like this is because it's all about base: noodles, veggies, sauce and meat/no meat. And you can make it many different ways and how you specifically like it. Basically you can combine things you have at the moment and make very easy yet delicious meal.
Hope you liked recipe. I will share some other easy but tasty things to make. Have a great weekend!
Festival of Light
Today I want to write about Festival of Light that is held each year in Belgrade (and I believe also Novi Sad) at the beginning of February. Reason for this festival is celebrating Lunar New Year, so date is not fixed, but mostly it's 2-3 weeks in February. If you didn't know, Lunar (or how we call it here, Chinese) New Year that is celebrated with new moon between 21st of January and 20th of February, and the celebration is lasting for 15 days. Here we don't celebrate it, but there are many Chinese people living here and this Festival of Light is in honor of Lunar New Year, I would say also as way of representing and supporting other cultures as well.
Event is organized by Balkanopolis center, with support of Chinese ambassy. I visited this festival in 2019 for the first time, and that was when it was held first time, but next 2 years I didn't go, and this year I went there again. First time it was organized on Kalemegdan Fortress, which is in city center, and very popular and visited place. Figures were displayed among tree and somehow for me it was perfect place for the event. Kalemegdan is very visited so even people who didn't know for the festival could just see it while walking there, and it was free so anyone could visit it. I really liked it back then, and didn't know that light figures could be so interesting. Since the place was park with not much city lights around, figures were shown perfectly. I will share some photos from back then with you.
It was truly magical and walking around there made me feel like I was in fairy tale, or like Alice in Wonderland. There was so many different figures, deer, sand clocks, flowers and bugs, pandas, penguins, cages, some traditional Chinese figures... I can't even chose what was my favorite. If you are ever in opportunity to visit festival of this kind, I would gladly recommend you to do it.
This year I went again. It was held from 1st of February to 15th of February, I guess because Lunar New Year also started this year on 1st of February, and traditional celebration also last 15 days. I am not sure where it was held in 2020 and 2021, because I didn't go then, but this year it was not on Kalemegdan again, and it was quite smaller, but with different figures. Maybe I write about it some other time.
Thanks for reading my post!
International Women's Day
Today, 8th of March is day dedicated to women and their fight for their rights and equality. It should be happy day and celebration, but even though women came long way trough history, it makes me sad that we are still far away from equality. And don't get me wrong, I know men and women can never be equal completely, we are simply different, but in some ways, equality is something that shouldn't be in question.
When it comes to payment, men and women must be equal. When it comes to education, men and women must be equal. When it comes to basic human rights men and woman MUST be equal. It brakes my heart that there are still some places on earth where women are not in control of their life, they can't chose life that they want to live. Their life is not in their hands. They cant chose or live independently. They can't chose what to do with their body (even if they were abused, and this is regulated with law in some countries). Why? Only because they were born as woman?
I am very sure most man don't even see or understand difficulties someone has to go trough life as woman. I know in some countries woman doesn't work "by default" and stays home to take care of family, but in Serbia in most cases both woman and man work, and that's not always because woman choose carrier, but simply because it's necessary to live here.
Let's see some statistics for Serbia:
taking care of children: 87% woman; 13% man;
in rural areas taking care of houses: 84% woman; 16% man;
leading positions: 32% woman; 68% man;
woman that feel they haven't do carrier wise as much as they wanted because of the lack of support: 55%
every third woman is victim of some kind of abuse
For example, here in Serbia, they encourage woman to be entrepreneur, to have their own business, but, as entrepreneur, woman doesn't have same rights as employed woman. So if entrepreneur gets pregnant she doesn't have rights to have her husband go to maternity leave instead of here, if she was employed he could. As entrepreneur she doesn't have right on full payment but only half. If she was employed she would have full. So they encourage woman to give birth, they encourage woman to have their business, but not both. Makes no sense, right?
I know many of these things are different from country to country and it depends on regulations and laws, and how much country protects you as woman, but I know for my country it's not good, and I know there are many countries where its way worse. So, in general, woman came long way, but it's still not how it should be.
But, I want to wish happy day to every amazing woman out there, dealing with everything that life throws at you, and dealing with all that while bleeding every month. Life isn't easy for woman right from the start and sure this society haven't made it any easier. So weather you chose family, weather you choose carrier, weather you chose both, weather you dress up or don't, weather you have clean house all time or don't, whatever you do in your life it's your choice and only your choice. You are not obligated to do what someone else expect you to do and live to someone else's standards. You are amazing just the way you are.
Happy women's day ladies!
Bullet journal - ideas and motivation
If you don't know what bullet journal is, ,it's basically type of diary and to do list, that is done monthly. It can be any notes that you have, that you can turn into your personal organizer. I started bullet journaling few years ago but I wasn't doing it whole time since then. I changed it based on what you do and what I need at the moment, but I always start from the first monthly page. I know it's been 7 days in March already, but I promised to share my spread, and also you can start it anytime.
This step is not necessary of course, if you don't want to draw, you don't have to, it's not important. But I like to do it. Usually I find my inspiration for these pages on youtube or instagram, and this time it was Amanda Rach Lee video (on her youtube you can find more about bullet journaling). I shared photos of process of drawing my front page for March.
Next important thing in my bullet journal are habit and expenses tracker. I do basic table where put all days in week and 'habits' that I want to track. For me that's how much water I take (because I am bad at this) do I spent money that that and did I had junk food (this is more like motivation not to do it, then something that's important to keep track of). Also in my table I have reading and drawing. If I plan to work out that month I also add that, and so on. So, you just put things that are important to you and you want to keep track of. This is great to motivate yourself to last at something but also to see for real how much days a month you do something, or not. Some people also keep track of sleep hours, mood, how many steps they did that day... You don't have limits here, you can keep track of anything.
When it comes to second part of this page - expenses, I don't make entry each day, I just write when there is change (paying bills, purchase,...) , so this table is bit different then first but for me they are both on same page, I like to save space. Any tracker can be made separately if you want so (like mood tracker), and very creative too, just search for ideas online if you are interested in it.
It's good to make little calendar in the journal too, so you can see when is which date and also mark if you have any event any day, or birthday or something important happening. This month I made little calendar, but sometimes I make bigger one if there is need for that. On the same page I write movies and series I watched that month and books that I read. Again, nothing important, it's just matter of preference do you want to keep track of that or not. Some people make songs tracker too, so they write down songs that they listened and discovered that month. It's all up to you. Sometimes I also make table for online earning where I keep track of how much I used and earned on specific site/app so that I know which ones are good and which ones are just waste of time.
And main part of journal is daily entry. For each day you will write what you want to do that day, and at end of the day you will check all things that you did. If you are just starting this, I suggest you to don't write to many things, just few things so you can do it, and then later you will be more aware of your time and how to menage it best way.
There are apps now that can help you with organizing (like notion) if you are not fan of pen and paper, but I like to do it this way. I hope I gave you some ideas and you can find many more on youtube if this is something interesting to you.
World book day - March 3rd 2022
Today I saw banner about world book day, that happens to be celebrated and I decided to make article about it. I think books are very important and they are big part of my life. I know many people don't like to read, but it's really another form of movie or tv-show, with much much more details and things that can't be shown but only read. Also it's up to you to chose actors 😁
How books came in my life
I was (thanks to my mother) member of local library since I was only 2. My mother was reading to me and story-telling my favorite fairy tales each night. and I enjoyed it a lot. However, when it came to that I have to read on my own, I didn't liked it. This was mostly because we were forced to read in school books that are part of school reading. They weren't bad books, and now I understand concept, but back then I didn't like to be forced to read anything and I prefer others to read to me (of course😁). You can guess I got bad grades, and my mother didn't know what to do and what is the problem. Eventually, she bought set of first 5 Harry Potter books and that was it. Love at first line! I "swallowed" all 5 parts and couldn't wait for the next.
Here is my Harry Potter set, and as you can see last two books are different. It's because first publisher didn't publish final two parts (book numbered 5 and 6 are "Order of Phoenix" but in 2 books), so it's from different publisher. I know Harry Potter isn't best set of books, but it's what brought me to the world of books. And I know many people are fans and many kids love to read it. So if you ask me, books are for everyone, you just have to find right book for you that will interest you to read more and more.
Later I started going to book fair with school each year, and latter on my own. Since I started I haven't missed any (but last two, due to pandemic). I was falling in love with books more and more, I started to care about details and to make my own collection. Since I was reading in library through primary and high school, later I just searched for books that I liked the most to by for myself and to have it always. I always carry book with myself. I am maybe too crazy, but I really like to have nice books and to collect them and to smell them and touch 😁 Okey, I take it too far, I know, but if you haven't so far, give books a chance!
Even though I like to read almost everything, I do have some preferences and favorite authors and my collection is pretty full but of course I have some books that I want there, but I usually buy books only on fair and try to get good deal.
Since I set goal to read one book a week maybe I will do short review and recommendation here, but I will see yet.
Anyways, happy world book day, enjoy in some book today and every other day!
March is here - plans and bullet journaling
I feel like January was just few days ago, February passed so quickly for me. But March is already here, and I am happy about it because I have more plans and events in March then so far this year. Also March is first month this year that I will do bullet journaling. I did it before, but I skipped first two months this year, mostly because I new how they will look like - holidays and lazy time home, and then busy with study only. Weather was also mostly bad so I wasn't going out much, I didn't exercise or draw and read, so there was no much point for me to do full monthly spreads for January and February when I knew it will mostly be empty.
Therefor, I am happy March is here and things will be more dynamic now. For this month I plan to keep tracker of my online earnings again because last 2 months weren't good for me, partly because of no free time to spend online, but also I lost rewards on noise, and I earn very little now. I plan to be more active this month online and hopefully to earn something while market is still red so I can profit later. I will also keep reading and drawing tracker. My goal is to draw each day (anything) or as much as I can, and to read one book a week. I will update you by the end of the month how I did. I will also return to learning new language. I have app for that that keep track, but I will also write in my journal. Another thing I would like to start again is exercising. Winter and holidays and junk food, and basically no activity for months are not such a good idea, so it's time to get more active. Nice weather is coming so maybe I will try to do daily walks, but I will think more about it.
This is my front page of bullet journal from March 2021. I still haven't done the one for this March. I will actually start to keep track and draw daily from 3rd of March, but since it's first today I decided to share my plans and maybe motivate someone else to start bullet journaling as well. Once I do full monthly spread for March this year I will share all details about it and how it looks. If you are interested you can check out maybe videos on this subject. I take my inspiration from Amanda Reach Lee mostly. Of course, you can do bullet journaling even if you don't draw, I just like to make first page interesting.
I know there are many apps these days that can help you keep track of your habits and financials, etc. But lets say I am old fashion and I like things on paper 😁 Keeping bullet journal helps you organize day, and motivates you to do things and if you make it by yourself, you can make it exactly how it fits for you, and only things that you need. Once I share my March spread, I will talk more about it and give you ideas.
Thank you for reading my post!
** Photos that I used in this post are made by me and original content.
Get to know my cat family
Hello everyone, it's been quite a while since last time that I posted here. It was due to many things, but mostly I was busy with my study, and didn't had inspiration or anything interesting to post. I plan to become more active here in a week, because next week will also be busy for me. I have some more study to finish and also some events, guests... But this also mean I will have some new things to post about.
Now I am back home for few days (till Monday) and temperatures in my hometown are still low. I was out to get some woods for fire, and of course all cats were following me. They didn't help but they were curious to see what I do, they jumped around, played with little pieces of wood, and very short of time, they posed for me so I could take few photos that are not blurry. Since it's Saturday ( #Caturday )and I haven't write about cats here before, I would like to introduce you to my cat family. I wasn't cat person at all, but now that we have them I stated to like them a lot. Even though they are much different then my all time love-dogs, they are very interesting and loveable as well.
In this photo you can see all of them, but actually one the one in far back is my cat, Tom. Tom and Maza, who is on the left, are mom and dad to the other two, Mila on the right and Dobrila in the front.
We got Tom in August of 2020, as kitten, and only few weeks later someone dropped Maza near to our home. She was scared of my dog so she run to next house and she stayed there. Tom and Maza become lovebirds very soon, and next year we got these two kittens. Kittens were very cute, one reminded me more of Tom, and other of Maza, and even though first plan was to find them other home, my little cousin insisted to keep them, so they stayed. They live with mother, but since its next door, they are together most of the time. The kittens will be one year old in May, and Tom will be 2 then. Maza is little younger then Tom.
They are all very cute, different and I love all of them. Maza was best model for me so far, but I love and try to take photos of all of them. Here are some other photos that I took also today.
I will share more photos of all of them some other time, and also photos of them when they were younger. I have the most photos of Tom, specially when he was little, he was very cute and playful.
This is just a 'return' post. To motivate myself to write here again. I would like to talk about some serious subjects here too, but also I will share nature, animals and some basic things from my life as well.
See you all in a week, probably.
Thank you for reading my post, and happy weekend to you all!
Protests in Serbia
Yesterday, on 4th of December 2021, many roads in Serbia were blocked for 2 hours. People gather in several cities, in bigger cities on a few locations, and blocked main roads. These people were there to protest against government decision to support and allow Rio Tinto company to make mine and extract lithium in few places in West Serbia. This will destroy those places, and all nature around. Protests were not political at all, people are on streets fighting for nature, rivers, land and fresh air, not power or money. This is the second Saturday in a row that protests took place, and there will be more. They are together with protests against air pollution, because Belgrade and some other cities in Serbia are on top of lists for air pollution during winter days, and thousands of people die each year as cause of bad air. Basically we are fighting for air, water and land. Protests were mostly very calm with no incidents. There were thousands of people all over the country and everything stopped for 2 hours.
Reason more for me to be there is because my home is in West Serbia and I always imagined living somewhere in village and forest, in beautiful nature, that they want to destroy. Also, many people there live from land they have, they do agriculture and with no land or clean water they have no income at all. People don't want mine and money, they want clean nature and their land.
There were many interesting transparent, most of the saying "Rio Tinto march from Drina" (Drina is river), "We don't want others, we don't give our own", "I will not give my river, for your mortgage"...
Government corrupted media tried to make false picture saying there was "20 people blocking the road" (no, I'm not kidding, they wrote 20) but luckily we live in 21st century, and we can't be fooled so easy, everything is filmed and transparent and all over the internet.
I was on one place, Slavija square, but I'm sharing some links with more photos from other places, if you want to see, and also some outside of county media made articles about this, so you can check them out too if you want:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXECu2-s2b_/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXEz7X_tx4I/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/05/rio-tinto-lithium-mine-thousands-of-protesters-block-roads-across-serbia
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/protesters-block-roads-in-serbia-to-criticize-mining-plans/2021/12/04/16f9d506-550d-11ec-83d2-d9dab0e23b7e_story.html
If we don't have fresh air, clean water and our land, what do we have?
Inktober Days 1-5 drawings
Every October there is a challenge where you get a prompt each day, and you are supposed to make a drawing with that prompt. It's an interesting way to make yourself draw each day and practice. Even though some prompts are not so interesting, it's a good way to practice. In this article I would like to share my drawings for days 1-5 with a little explanation about each of them.
For all drawings I used Unipens sixe 0.03 to 0.8. Inspiration I found on google and on pinterest. Aslo on instagram.
Day 1: CRYSTAL
For this one I wanted to do other thing, but the thing is, I can't draw from my head, I need to see what I want to draw, so I ended up drawing this crystal ring, I imagined it bit different a but couldn't find something like that. So this is the ring I draw, and beside Unipens I used also pencil so I can shade it a bit.
Day 2: SUIT
Again, here I imagined doing just floating suit, with no head or hands, just suit. So it would be kind of ghost. However, I couldn't find a photo of what I imagined, so I change it to this one. It's cool effect for ink drawing, and it's also reference to one movie. Do you know which one? Hint: He is dancing with a woman that is not on drawing. Answer is below picture.
Movie reference: Pulp fiction
Day 3: VASSEL
This one was easy and fun for me. I knew I would draw this from the start, I just found a few photos and combined them together, so this is how it looked in the end.
Day 4: KNOW
This one was my least favorite of the first five prompts. I just couldn't imagine anything fun with it. I just made a basic know drawing, that ended up looking like a pretzel. Meh.
Later, I found many more interesting and creative work with this promt, but I wasn't interested to redo it.
Day 5: RAVEN
And the last one for this article is prompt, raven. For this one I had the idea to do a plague mask, but I am not quite sure does it represent raven or craw. I liked it, so I decided to do it anyway. With pandemic now and everything, it was my first thought. However, again I couldn't find a better photo, so I did this drawing. I thought it will be bad at the start but in the end it turned out pretty good, and I liked it.
How do you like my drawings? What's your favourite?
Please, also give me some feedback on my writing in general. I would like to improve so I am open to all your critics and help.
Thank you for reading!
My Teddy Bear
Today, my sweet dog is turning 7 years. Here is little story about my dog Teddy.
How I got him
Teddy became a member of my family by accident, sad one, unfortunately. I always loved dogs so much and always wanted one. But my parents wouldn't allow me to have a dog. I would be with street dogs all time, and even name them and feed them daily. Then, for my 18th birthday, I got Samoyed from my friends as a gift. I was scared that my parents wouldn't let me keep him, but they agreed. He was called Medo (little bear). Unfortunately we lost him. He was running and following an unknown dog that came in our front yard, and got hit by a car. At that time his two puppies where 2 months old. At first I didn't want to take one of them, but then I realized it would be Medo's son, and I would have a part of him still with me. Also my dad, who was mostly against having a dog, had hard time losing Medo, and now him and Teddy are the closest. This is why I always say, if you didn't had dog, you don't know this amazing type of love that you need to feel and experience. Unconditional love.
This is a photo of me and Teddy, when I first met him, at the time I didn't know he will become our dog. He lived with his mother, brother, and cats. A lot of cats. This was great because his mother taught him everything, and when he came to our place, he already knew to ask to go out to the bathroom. He always asked, and didn't have any accidents in the house, not even as a little puppy.
This is photo of Teddy and his brother.
Why I chosed him
When my family took him, I wasn't there, but I told them which puppy to choose. Reason why I did this, is because when I met puppies one of them reminded me of Medo more, and he was all the time active with me and much more friendly and playfull than the other one. The other one was more calm, like their mother, Bella.
Teddy become part of the family very quickly, and stole everyone's heart. You could say he is little bit spoiled, but that is because of what happened to his dad. However, he is a very good doggo and he doesn't use this advantage (okey, maybe with me only, he knows I have soft spot for him).
What is Samoyed like
Teddy is a Samoyed. This is a beautiful breed of dog if you ask me. They are very friendly, playful, good with people, kids and other dogs. They are not guard dogs, even tho they bark a lot. And I mean A LOT, and all the time. They are deperate for attention, so if you want to have this dog make sure he has company most of the time, they don't like to be alone.
Teddy and friends
Teddy loves attention and he loves other dogs and to play with them. This is him in the river, with his friend Amos. Samoyeds are not good swimmers, but he loves to swim in the river with his friend. But he hates baths at home so much.
Since last year, Teddy also lives with a cat, Tom. At first Tom was really scared of him (he is a big dog) , but with time they started to get along. Now they are very good most of the time. Sometimes Tom is annoyed and wants to be alone, and Teddy desperately tries to get him to play.
Teddy is very sweet and good dog, and we couldn't wish for any better.
Happy Birthday Teddy!
October summary and plans for November
I write a bullet journal and there I do some goals and also write down many things, as well as my online earnings and my goals for that month. But it will be nice to put it here also, as some kind of motivation for me and maybe others.
How I did in October?
(*photo from my bullet journal October spread*)
**NOISE.CASH** - October was my third month on noise, but I joined on August 21st and I didn't earn that much in August. My goal for October was to earn as much as I had earn until then (in August and September). For the first half of the month I did great. I was even beating my goal, but then some changes happen, both on site and in BCH price, so my earnings slowed down a bit. And for day or two, I didn't even earn. But, by the end of the month I almost reached my goal, I was just few bucks away, so I am happy with the result, considering all. I earned ~ 0.169 BCH.
**READ.CASH** - I did very bad here, my goal was to write more, but I ended up with only 2 articles. However I had one small achievement and that was reaching 100+ views. But at least I finally started. However robot hasn't visited me yet, so I hope that happens this month.
**OTHER SITES** - On other sites my earnings are lower then here, I even stopped using some sites/apps in September. But I started using a few more apps/sites, and I will test them in this month to see what is worth and what works for me.
**CRYPTO** - Other then BCH i also collect BTC but my earnings are very low. However, I also started collecting some other coins, so now I have BTC, LTE, DOGE, SHIBA. Its all very little but I will see how it goes and I will have to learn more about coins and what to collect.
November plans and goals
For November I will put here my earning goals as well as some other goals that I want to accomplish this month. This will be great motivation for me to do them, so I don't come back here and say "Oh well, I didn't do any of these", that would be embarrassing 😅 (*photo is my bullet journal November spread*)
**NOISE.CASH** - Originally, my plan would be to earn even more then October, but since some things change and my earnings dropped, I want to be realistic, but also I don't lose hope things will get better again. Considering all that, my goal for November is 0.15 BCH. This also depends on BCH price, if it goes up it will be harder to do it, but I think its possible.
**READ.CASH** - Here I don't have a specific earning goal, but I want to write more. I would say 2 articles a week are okey, and then I can do even more later, maybe. And I need to improve them so I start to earn here, beside tips from other great and supportive users. I don't think I can reach 1000+ views with 2 articles a week, so let's leave that goal for next month.
**OTHER SITES** - I plan to do 2 cash outs this month, on 2 apps. Other then that I will just earn. Like I already said, I started some new sites/apps and I will try to use them daily to test them and decide will I continue to use them.
**CRYPTO** - Crypto is a work in progress for me. Daily I see so many posts about so many different coins and people profiting from them so much, but I don't know where to start. For now I would like to choose a few more coins that might be good in future, and go from there. One other thing that's bad for me is that some good sites and wallets doesn't work for my country, so its also frustrating to discover that some sites I can't even use to earn.
**DRAWING** - I started in October to draw more, and I did good. I missed some days, but I drew more then usual. Haven't posted here any of my work from "Inktober" challenge, maybe I should do that in November or it doesn't make any sense? I will see. However, I just did ink, so for November my goal is to also do something else like watercolor or tempera.
**READING** - I need to read more, I know once I get into it, it will be easy. I have some books on the way and also I have some already waiting for me. Again, I don't want to put bar too high and get annoyed if I don't do it, so my goal will be 3 books this months (but I hope to read even more).
**LEARNING LANGUAGE** - I was already doing this, and I had Duolingo app and also Drops app. I would like to continue now and be more dedicated to it. I know this apps will not be enough, but I use them and also search online for more information that I need.
**SOME OTHER GOALS** - I have some things related to my study and some projects, but I don't have it defined. I will share by the end of the month what I did, or later, when I finish.
Fingers crossed, I hope to manage some, if not all these goals. At least to get close, if I don't reach.
*See you at the end of month, with following update* 😊
"Bloody Fairy Tale"
Ever heard of song "Bloody fairytale"? If you are from Serbia, probably yes (most Serbs knows first verse of this song), otherwise - probably not. Its poem written by very famous Serbian author, Desanka Maksimovic, and its about very specific event that took place on this day, 80 years ago.
On October 21st 1941, in one city in Serbia (back then in Yugoslavia), Kragujevac, there was a mass murder and about 3000 men and boys (mostly Serbs) were killed by German solders. Reason for this was not long before, when Partizani and Cetnici took over anther occupied city, Gornji Milanovac. When they released city, they also took some German solders as hostages. German solders came to rescue them, and incident happened which caused 10 German solders to lose life, and 26 were injured. After that, Kragujevac massacre happen. So 3000 lives (of even young boys) for 10 solders. Their formula was 100 lives for one dead solider, and 50 for one injured, formula devised by Adolf Hitler, with the intent of suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe. Some shooting happened on 20th of October 1941. but biggest one was next day, when they took 2272 life, on cemetery, in Sumarice. Among them, there was 217 kids (under 18), from which there was 60 students of high school and 134 kids that didn't go to school, and 23 kids under 15.
"Shoot, I am still holding class now."
Among arrested that day, there was also a proffessor of Serbian language and literature Miloje Pavlovic. It is believed that Germans wanted to save his life, as a respectable citizen, and gave him chance to leave, but he refused with words "Shoot, I am still holing class now." and he died among his students. Instead of choosing life, knowing his students died, he choosed death, and with those words, he made history and become immortal. Even before this, Miloje Pavlovic was very honorable and respectable man, with many achievements, and all this lead to him posthumously become a national hero, in 1953.
October in Kragujevac - Memorial park
The same year (1953.), in Sumarice (where shooting took place) memorial park October in Kragujevac (also known as Sumarice Memorial Park) was build complex on 353 hectares. It includes 7km long path that goes through valleys where people were killed. It also includes Museum "21st October" that was build later, in 1976. There are few monuments in this park, but most known is one that is "Broken Wings" from author Miodrag Zivkovic, and it was in honor of students and professors that died that day. I'm sharing photo of it:
Image: Mickey Mistique, CC BY-SA 4.0 via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C5%A0umarice_Memorial_Park,_Monument_to_fifth-graders,_01.jpg
In complex, there is also monument that says "Shoot, I am still holding class now." dedicated to the professor Miloje Pavlovic, and few other monuments.
Poem by Desanka Maksimovic
After she heard of massacre in Kragujevac, Desanka Maksimovic wrote poem called "Bloody Fairy Tale". Its called that way, because it was unbelievable that this event happen in 20th century in Europe (unfortunately, many other even worse happen, and still are), she didn't mentioned in which country this happen because, after all that doesn't even matter. What mattered where lives of innocent people that were taken, cold-blooded. I'm sharing original poem with you, as well as the translation into English.
(Serbian version)
You can find it following this link: http://www.laban.rs/lib/Desanka_Maksimovich/Krvava_bajka.html
(English version)
*"It happened in a land of farmers*
*on Hilly Balkan, far, far away;*
*A troop of students died martyred*
*on one single day.*
*They were all born in the same year.*
*For all of them, the school days were the same:*
*They were all taken to the same festivals with cheer,*
*they were all vaccinated*
*until the last name,*
*and they all died on the same day.*
*It happened in a land of farmers*
*on Hilly Balkan, far, far away;*
*A troop of students died martyred*
*on one single day.*
*And only fifty-five minutes*
*prior the death moment,*
*a small troop of fidgets*
*sat beside their school desks*
*solving the same hard math quest:*
*“If a traveler goes by foot,*
*how much time he needs to rest...”*
*And so on.*
*Their thoughts were filled*
*with same figures and tags*
*and there was a countless amount*
*of senseless As and Fs*
*in their notebooks and in their bags.*
*They were squeezing*
*a whole bunch of secrets that mattered -*
*either patriotic or a love letter -*
*on the bottom of their pockets.*
*And everyone of them supposed*
*that he would for a long time,*
*for a very, very long time*
*run under the blue sky --*
*until all math quests on the world were*
*done and gone by.*
*It happened in a land of farmers*
*on Hilly Balkan, far, far away;*
*A troop of students died martyred*
*on one single day.*
*Whole rows of boys took each other’s hands*
*and leaving the last school class*
*went to the execution quietly,*
*as the death was nothing but a smile.*
*All friends in rows were, at the same moment,*
*lifted up to the eternal domicile."*
I didn't do translate, it was taken from https://www.poetryverse.com/desanka-maksimovic-poems/bloody-fairy-tale .
It's really sad how these things happen, and unfortunately still happens even in 21st century. There is no winners in war, there is no sides in war. Just innocent people that die because of bad politics. Any type of war today for any 'reason' is unacceptable and its devastating that wars still happen.
*(Disclaimer 1: Numbers are not 100% correct, there are many sources, but all around those figures)*
*(Disclaimer 2: When I first posted article I wanted to Serbian and English version to go one beside another but it didn't worked)*
My online earning journey
How and when it all started...
It was probably 2014 when I first discovered and started online earning. At first it were all mostly ptc sites (paid to click) where you could see few ads and earn something like 0.001 (more less) . I was amazed that you could earn basicly doing nothing from your home, even tho it was few cents.
It didn't took me long to start researching more and discovering more and more sites. Soon it was clear: the more you can earn per click, the more chances site is not paying. Even tho I liked it at start, soon I realised even if I use few sites, earning it are closer to nothing then to something per day. Then I discovered other sites to earn.
Discovering new sites and opportunites
Possibilities were almost endless. You can earn online basicly doing anything that you can think of to do on your computer. From watching videos, doing surveys, following people on social media, posting or selling photos, to some affiliate programs and pyramid systems (that were most likely scam).
Unfortunately for me, possibilites weren't so big because not all sites were international, and not all paid for users in my country. But I ended up trying out pretty much everything that I could. Some were good, some were less good, but most of them didn't last long either way. However, new sites are available all time, and I become almost expert in recognizing what sites were worth of trying and what are obviously scam. Then I recommended some sites that I tested out and tried to earn from refferals.
I did liked the sites that include posting photos the most. For me it wasn't nothing, it wasn't just clicking and seeing some add, it was actually my photo and my effort that made that income, and I also loved to take photos, so that was best way to earn for me.
Also I missed on some good apps at the time coz I didn't had android phone, but now that I have it, I can say same for sites. Some are good, some not so good, some are good for a while. Its always a bit of a lottery when it comes to this type of online earnings.
Investing in sites online?
This was a big no for me from start. First, coz I didn't had money to invest (lucky me? :D ) second, coz I didn't trust any site no matter how good it was, I was sure any site can go down anytime (and I saw that happening few times). And also my motto was: Why would I invest when I have sites just to earn!
Now that I have more experience and some earnings, I am in place to invest, but now only thing I would invest in is crypto (I will talk other time more about this).
Was it worth it?
All of this took time. Search for new sites, testing them out, inviting other people... On some sites I didn't even reach minimum, on some I reach but they didn't pay... Overall, was my earning journey worth moneywise? Not really. In august this year I acctually took my first money from paypal to my credit card, after all this years. But during this time I met some amazing people and I also learned a lot.
If you are interested to earn some pocket money, then I would say yes, there are sites and apps to do that. But if you want bigger amount of money, then you should check out some sites that offer freelance jobs.
In this article I talk about my earnings in $ (euros, etc...) but not in crypto. I will leave my crypto story for some other time.
*(Disclamer1: This is my first article on read.cash , I would love your feedback and some tips that I can use in future)*
*(Disclamer2: Photos used in this article are from Unsplash, pixabay.com and google.com)*
@moonlight22
