I'm a Foodie with a capital 'F', so it's probably no surprise that I'm a big supporter of supper clubs. In college I was part of a supper club for years, and even though I'm not in college anymore I still try to keep it up. Here's a guide to start your own amazing supper club, including different types of supper clubs and a few tips and tricks I've learned.
Bored out of your mind? I promise, these movies are worth you're time. They are not listed in any particular order, and they are very different in terms of style and content, but they are all amazing movies, so I thought I'd share them with you.
Born into Brothels
I first watched this a few years back in uni and I still find it incredibly heartwarming and tragic. The two filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kaufman follows the children in the red light district of Calcutta, while Zana, who's also a photographer, teaches the children photography. The movie offers a very rare insight into the children's lives, good and bad, in one of the toughest places you can ever imagine growing up.
BABIES
This is so adorable, my ovaries nearly exploded. The movie simply follows four babies, from four different countries, in their first years. There's not a plot or a story line or any real dialogue. It's just babies growing up, and it's the cutest thing ever.
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures
I suspect people, who like The Inbetweeners, will love this movie. It's just so tragicomical, you will cringe every fiber in your body through the entire movie. The director, Chris Waitt, made this movie about his tragic love life and in the process he interviews his ex-girlfriends, experiments with internet dating, and gets advice from his mom. It makes you want to laugh out loud and look away in embarrassment at the same time.
Bobby Fischer Against the World
My knowledge of Bobby Fischer was limited to "some guy, who played chess in the '70s", so you can imagine my excitement when I started watching this movie... However, it's first and foremost a tragic tale of a genius, who became one of the most celebrated heros of the cold war, before having a massive(!) downfall. I'm still puzzled by the fact that I was on the edge of my seat watching a documentary about a chess player, but I really was and that in itself makes it a remarkable movie.
So, this year I've decided to start some new habits, riding on a wave of postive energy and great learning experiences from last year.
My journey, from being totally stressed out to finding a more positive and encouraging outlook, is still a work in progress, but one of the most important steps was finding a way to deal with my inner critic. In my experience, you can't move forward if your inner critic keeps calling you out on your mistakes and your lack of competence. When I was unemployed my inner critic was definitely not in the mood to keep quiet, so it took me some time to find a way to deal with it.
In this article author and speaker, Denise Jakobs, does a wonderful job explaining how your inner critic works, and how you can deal with it. She also talks about what contributes to our inner critics:
When explained like this, it makes perfect sense to me why you should deal with your inner critic instead of trying to fight it. (After all, it's only trying to look out for you.) It also raises the question: What do I say that feeds other people's inner critic? After reading the article I've been much more aware of how my words can either contribute to an inner critic or help disarming it just a little.
I'd love to know how you deal with your inner critic, and if you have any tips or tricks for people who struggle with their own.
First of all: HAPPY 2015! Even thought I might be a little late I'm still in the positive spirit of New Year's and everything that comes along with it. To kick off my first week of blogging in 2015, I have a series of new year's post, including this look back on 2014, and thoughts on 2015.
A look back at 2014:
I have learned SO much this past year, I don't even know where to begin. But the most important lesson is probably the one stated above. I can't even remember, where I found the quote, but it is my year in a nutshell: First of all I have stopped making mental scoreboards, which I used to do all the time: E.g. getting a job was one point. No job was zero points. So, I practically woke up every morning with no points and went to bed with no points. Depressing? You have no idea!
Things first started to change when I got a job coach, who supported me and gave me confidence and a new perspective on my skills. Without going into too much detail, I can only say that her help and support has meant the world to me, and I'm truly grateful. The whole experience turned my perspective 180 degrees, and I went from my mental scoreboard to treating everything as a learning experience, and people around me as " life teachers". I know it's very hippie-like, but it really works for me. If I want to find out about something new, I find someone who knows about it and contact them! If I want to try something different that really scares me, I try to overcome the fear and think that even if it's a complete failure, I have gained valuable lesson. A BIG disclaimer: This transformation didn't come overnight. It took me six months, a lot of coaching, and difficult mental re-wiring to get to this place. However, it's great place to be and start off a new year.
Plans for 2015
Hopefully this year will not be as much of a mental re-wiring process, but there are still things I want to work on and improve. After reading this fantastic post about 5 Ideas to create an amazing 2015 I was really inspired. Especially the first point is something I'd like to live by this year: Create habits, not goals or resolutions!
To make things easier, I have four areas, which I want to work on this year:
Hopefully, working my habits in these four areas will make 2015 an even better year, and whatever I find particularly inspiring and helpful, I will post here.
I'm a huge fan of quizzes! I'm always at my local pub's monthly pub quiz, I play Trivial with my dad, and I'm a sucker for Buzzfeed quizzes like "What kind of goth are you" or "How British are you?". (Turns out I'm "medieval throwback goth" and "as British as Stephen Fry walking a corgi near Buckingham Palace".) The quizzes below are some of the more bizarre constellations, but they're hilarious.
IKEA OR DEATH
This quiz answers the age-old question: Is it the name of some mass produced, Swedish pine furniture, or is it four guys with long hair wearing all black? Because some band names are inspired by Norse words, it's not as easy as it sounds...
PORN OR PONY
Warning: You will not look at your favourite childhood toys the same way again after taking this quiz. In the Porn or Pony quiz you have to guess if the names listed belong a My Little Pony character or a porn star. I failed epically in this one, and I'm still disturbed by how difficult it is to tell the difference between the two.
These are just simple plugins, which makes browsing a little bit easier and better for me. Hopefully you will find them useful too.
Hover Zoom
I've had Hover Zoom so long, I don't even think about it anymore. However, writing this post made me realise how much I actually use it on a daily basis. It basically does exactly what it says: It enlarges thumbnails when you hover the cursor over them. Pretty straight forward, but very useful for things like image searches, instagram and pinterest.
f.lux
This is the latest addition to my browser. I've only had it for two weeks but I'm already a big fan. It adjusts the colour temperature of your screen based on the time of day so the darker it gets, the warmer the colours are. It makes it much more relaxing to look at your screen in the evening, and incidentally it also makes it a good indicator for when you should stop watching Netflix.
Stayfocusd
I really wish I had known about Stayfocusd sooner, because it would have been a lifesaver at uni. You can manage your procrastination (a little) by blocking selected websites for a certain period of time. That way you can deny yourself access to facebook or reddit when you're working. Pretty frustrating, but really helpful.
My wonderful friend, Kristian, gave me this tip a while ago. I've been using it every week since I started work, and I thought I would share it with you.
How do you know what you specifically have achieved at work? In my previous jobs and at uni I had given it some thought, but I had never put it down in writing. But that's exactly what Kristian does: Every month he writes down the projects he's been working on, what his specific responsibilities and tasks were, and how the project's have added value to the company. That way he keeps track of his achievements.
I've started writing my achievements down on a weekly basis, just for a start, and so far it's been a really helpful. Not only is it nice to have a list of achievements by the end week; I also use it as a track list of what skills and qualification I use, and when I use them.
'The achievement list' might be the simplest tool ever, but it works really well, and I can definitely recommend it to everyone. If you are a student this can be a building block for your future resume, and if you're already working this can be a good document to have, when you're talking pay and future job tasks with your boss.
