"When in doubt, tell the truth" - Mark Twain

Ten confusing facts about Russians!

2011-10-29T23:46:00.014+02:00

I realize I've been a little absent as of lately. One of the explainations behind this "mysterious" absense is that I relocated to Russia (3000kms from my home) nearly two months ago as a volunteer. In honour of this move I've made a little list of what have confused me about Russians so far (mind you some things might be a little generalising - be not offended, I like Russians, this list is just for fun).

They're not quite Asians, not quite Europeans - what they hell are they?
They tend to ONLY speak Russian (east of Skt. Petersburg & Moscow).
When celebrating nothing goes quite - everything must be larger than life!
They tend to rely more on "that's how've always done it" than the law.
They are extraordinarily hospitable to their guests, to a point where, sometimes, their hospitable is like taken out of a victorian novel.
They will sometimes give you presents - just for being a foreigner!
They will sometimes threaten or hurt you - just for being a foreigner!
Don't think you're always the one worst off, Russians are very tough and rarely complain about pain or physical uncomfortability.
One language, 5 different 'S' sounds - WHY!?
95% of buildings look almost the same (at least 15% are orthodox churches) - the remaining 5% tends to be either "polish" (catholic) churches or government buildings.

And with that I will have to leave you - as Russians doesn't tend to smoke inside their homes (another fun fact for ya'll) I will have to jump to the other side of the door too. But if you're bored 'till the next post check out my new personal blog telling all about my crazy Russian experiences and other trivial things:

www.glamorousretrospect.blogspot.com

пока!

Change of heart?

2011-08-09T22:42:00.002+02:00

Seeing as how I'm about to start a blog on my upcomming experiences as a volunteer in a foreign country I am strongly considering turning this blog into my new blog, and create a mix up of the currently writing style and the new, much more personal blog, especially seeing as how I feel the name as well as the design of the blog and the Mark Twain quote at the top is only all too fitting for the new blog as well. Hmmm, what to do, what to do??

UPDATE: (nearly 3 months later) Not gonna happen, will stay two seperate blogs -click here to check out the other one! ;)

Mission Complete

2011-08-09T22:33:00.006+02:00

Just a quick update to share the wonderful news: my International Baccalaureate Diploma was officially awarded on July 6th 2011.

Mission complete, Russia here I come!

Studying for exams (tips)

2011-05-18T01:45:00.011+02:00

Study-guides

I am not entirely confident that all (high school levelled) educations have published study-guides, nevertheless I can tell you IB, for example, does. They can be found at the IBO´s website store (www.ibo.org), or bought used on ei. Ebay. Instead of reading the entire school book again right before exams, you can get through a study-guide in half the time, and refresh all the important information, formulae, points etc. Saves you time (but not money). The only bad side of a study-guide, is that it's not particularly useful if you haven't already read the regular book/attended classes, or if you're having a hard time understanding the subject (if so, remember to check out khans academy!).

Khan academy (www.khanacademy.org)
This website saved my life as far as biology goes. If you have difficulties understanding a subject in general, no matter how much time you spend studying, or if you need a quick recap of a subject. Khan academy is basically a website full of free online lectures, and has excellent standards. While they do not always go completely in depth, they explain the basics of all you need to know, in a way which is incredibly easy to understand. Personally I only used Khan academy for biology, but the also have videos on many different subjects incl. mathematics and economy.

Past exam papers
Reading the books themselves aren't always enough if you want a good grade. You also need to be used to/understand the exam´s form. Therefore, ask your teacher (or google) for past exams papers in the subject, and do these papers, preferably with access to the mark scheme for the papers afterwards, so you can check your answer, and see what gets you the maximum mark. You might have to use a few minutes to find the websites with the right exams papers, but it is definately worth your while. My personal preference is www.xtremepapers.me , it has papers from all different educations and on many different subjects, often with the mark scheme as well.

Bedtimes

Go to bed in good time. Don't pull an all-nighter studying the night before your exam. It can only work against you, because buy the time your exam starts your brain will be working slower than usual! You also have a harder time concentration on the subject. Set a minimum of 6 hours of sleep. If the subject of your exams is one you have difficulties with, 6 hours of sleep is acceptable, as it gives you two hours more of studying. If it's an easier of the subject, sacrifice the two hours of studying on sleep, so your brain can process at the knowledge within the time frame of the exam.

Stay sober!
For some of us, exam preparation temps to drink (the nerves away). But for goodness sake don't! A buzz will only make it more difficult to remember what you studied, and rob you of your energy the next day. Whether we like it or not, alcohol kills braincells, and therefore alcohol does not go well together with your studying. Have a piece of chocolate or some soda instead to help calm and paper yourself a bit.

(Try) to make a plan
When your study-break start, attempt to make a plan of your revision period. What do you study which day. How many days are you going to study during the week? How many hours of the day? What time of the day? But while doing so remember to be realistic: Try to take account for potential procrastination in advance, prepare for unexpected events (visit from family, getting sick, etc.), and give yourself a break once in a while if the study-break is long term (2-3 weeks in a row or more), to see friends and family and put your brain on hold for a moment.

Check your syllabus
What do you actually need to know, and what is just filling in your books? Especially American schoolbooks tends to be bigger than necessary, because the authors gets paid for the quantity instead of quality. But in European (and many other) countries part of what is in the school books is non-important information. Also some books has both the high level and standard (and lower) levels content in them. So if you're, for example, standard level, there might be content it the book you need not know. The easiest way to keep yourself from wasting time reading things you do not need to know, is to read and follow your syllabus. Usually the best way to get the syllabus list, is to simply ask your teacher, as they are always given your syllabus.. even if they aren't smart enough to share it with their students.

Know the differences between the exams
In IB you only have written exams during your exam period (and 2-3 during the 2 years in IB). In all subjects you have 2-3 exams: Paper 1, paper 2 and paper 3. What you need to know for the different papers (which are usually on different days) tends to be quite different areas of the syllabus. Therefore there is no point in preparing, for example, the content of a paper 3 exam for your paper 1 exam. Therefore be sure to know what it is they want from you in the different exams you have to go through, regardless of their structure (written paper 1-2-3 exams, or a combination of oral an written exams, etc.).

Eat something
What ever you do, don't let your blood-sugar get low in exams, it will make you tired and unfocused. Eat some kind of breakfast in the morning, even if you usually don't. If you're too nervous or too tired to eat proper breakfast, eat some fruit. Generally try eat a healthy breakfast, rather than a sugar filled one, because with a sugar filled breakfast your blood-sugar might rapidly increase, but it will also rapidly decrease, and you don't want to end up with super low blood-sugar in the middle of the exam.

Move on
During your exam period take it one day of the time. Prepare for you exam, take it, and then - regardless of how it when: good/bad/okay - MOVE ON and focus on the next exam. Spend maybe an hour after the exam processing it, discussing it with others, cope, etc. and then move your focus on your next exam and don't linger on it. What´s done is done.

Best of luck to everybody who´s going through either their exams or their study-break at the moment! :-)

Speaking of the devil, I have to get back to studying for my biology exam tomorrow. 2 days 'till graduation!!

Today life is good

2011-04-02T16:39:00.014+02:00

Tickets for Krakow in summer - Done!
Last day of school wrapped up - Done!
Partying after last day of school - Done!
Ton of application for summer jobs sent - Done!
Finally some summer wheather - Done!
Exans in may - Pending.
Gotten a job for the summer - Pending.

You live, you learn.

2011-03-06T22:44:00.011+01:00

I am now officially closing in on the end of 15 years of school. For the most part I have enjoyed the learning process, even if not so much the homework and getting up early for school, but for the past year the learning processing itself has become an issue for me. It´s not that I do not believe in educating and better myself. But being forced to comprehend new knowledge non-stop for the past 15 years of my life on command have started to take its tole on me, and it has make me strongly question the system in place (at least in western society) that we are to constantly learn in school 'till the day we are so far in our education, that we can now start the job we expect to do for the rest of our life.

Personally, I can expect another 4 years 'till I'm holding my university degree in my hand. And what this last year of school has made me realize, I will not get this degree, do my best, and learn the most, if I continue on this path of non-stop school, with only vacations and no real breaks.

This has made me wonder, how we are expected to spend 15-20 years of learning a very long list of curriculums, in addition to learning how to live and function as humanbeings, and actually gain the full benefits from what we are taught. Being taught a long list of theories without a breake to reflect on what we are to taught, and how it relates to our reality, is not the most productive solution for the individual nor the society.

If we are not given the opportunity to reflect and relate our knowledge to life, the end game is that we simply learn a lot of theories, which we are not able to appreciate. Furthermore, because there is such a lack of practical demonstrations, we cannot necessarily understand the use of what now know. From my personal experience, from myself and those around me, society often end up with a larger amount of well educated, but very frustrated young adults, who are not able to stand the idea of embracing new knowledge.. in fact they are much more likely to develop allergies against it. De facto they become part of a large group which has the tendency of turning into very close-minded individuals.

My now slightly obvious point, is that our system´s idea of finishing our education as soon as possible, so we can go out and be a profit for society and the pressure it puts on young people, is a serious issue. I am not encouraging people to take a break from the education system to do nothing, but solely considering that old cliché that there is important facts to know about the world, you can not be taught in a classroom: Travel, live, experience the many theories in real life, grow, bond, get to know yourself and and the people and cultures in this world. Live a little, is allowed, even if the system does not condone it. The world does not spin around the educational system.. or at least it shouldn't.

Quick how to: Writing CAS self-evaluations

2010-11-11T21:30:00.011+01:00

In my early IB days I remember having some serious issues writing CAS evaluations, so here's a quick CAS report guide for anyone else in need.

Step 1 Short summery of what you've done. Additionally tell about your expectations before the activity, and what your goals was
E.g: "I decided to take part in arranging a fundraiser for the victems of hurricane katrina in order to help develop my management and people skills, and help those in need, to get a more global perceptive, as I figured this would be a challenging task".

Step 2 Tell about the procress. What was good? What could have been done better? Did you succeed in reaching your goal?
E.g: "Primarily this task required us to make a lot of communication with various charities. Another part of the process was getting the community interested in participating. We were required to research our case futher in order to also enlighten the people attending. The communication went very well, and was very professsionally done. However we found it quite difficult to motivate the community to attend. But in the end we managed to create a small but very successful fundraiser." etc.

Step 3 How has it changed (read: improved!) you and your outlook upon the world? Did it improve any of your skills (communication, cooperation, persistance etc.)? Did it make you view the world differently (understand the dynamics of the world better, appreciate others more)? Compare the actual experience of the activity with the expectations (step 1) you've had for it, and thereby demonstrate what you've learned.

And you're done!

(Additionally remember to always relate it to 1-3 of the 8 learning outcomes IBO has set.. and yeah, it's okay to be a little dramatic when you evaluate. )

5 good reasons to share an apartment ..and 5 good reasons not to.

2010-11-11T17:13:00.009+01:00

I just started sharing an apartment with a friend, and while I love it, sometimes I catch myself considering jumping off a roof. Sharing your home is not for everyone, and most important is to find the right person to share it with. Therefore a list of the 5 best and worst things about sharing.

Top 5 good reasons to share an apartment.
1. You're never really alone. You know how you sometimes feel bored out of your mind because there's nothing to do around town, and everyone is t0o smashed to go anywhere (most commonly know as sunday). Well now you got someone to watch all those bad sunday afternoon programs with you. Cooking also becomes so much more cozy when you're two doing groceries, cooking and planing. Not to meantion you eat with company.

2. It's sooo much cheaper. The price difference betwen a one person apartment and a two persons apartment is not that big. Food also becomes far cheaper, plus you get to eat much more varied. The internet bill, the tv bill, there is suddenly so many bills that are cut in half for you!

3. People always drop by. For some reason there is a magical fomula called: 1 person living in the apartment = people come by when you arranged it. 2 persons living in the apartment = people drop by all the time. This of course is most fun when you have the same circle of friends.

4. If your friendship can last living together, you know your friendship can last most all things.

5. Share the mess! Suddenly it's not always your turn to do the chors around the apartment. Now, someone else goes around and do the dishes and vacume. Woo!

Top 5 good reasons not to..

1. You're never really alone. This can be as fustrating as it can be awesome. Somedays you just want everything to go according to your head or just want to be alone, and that's when you go home and lock the door. Unfortunally for you, you're nolonger the only person with a key!

2. Lack of privacy. Get used to it. Who ever is visiting, or whatever you're doing (or have lying around), someone is constantly around to witness it. That's just part of the deal you made.

3. If the friendship breakes for one reason or the other, you're pretty much screwed. Finding a new apartment can take time, and be costy. Additionally the friendship will often breake because you have to tolarate each other more than you can do in the long run. And a war at home is no fun. In addition to losing money and your home, if you force each other to move, you most likely also just lost a friendship.

4. Rythem issues. Are you a morning person? Then I hope for your sake, that your roomie is not a night person. If one person prefer the loud music at night with parties, and the other early in the morning when starting the day, and if you like few guests while your roomie wants people around all the time, you've choosen the wrong roomie.

5. Who does what? Agreeing on that in theory is one thing, executing that theory is another reality. Are you the only one who's doing the choors, or is your roomie complaning that s/he is? The smallest things can sometimes cause the biggest fights.

A few "How you survive IB" tips..

2010-11-11T16:37:00.006+01:00

It's always so darn easy to look back and say to yourself "Why did I not do this???" "What was I thinking?!" or even better "If only I knew, what I know now..". Well, primarily the latter applies to IB for me, so here's a few things I wish someone had told me when I started the IB, and a few my fellow classmates should have been told as well.

Do your sceince reports!

Do not get fooled by the WL, the portfolios and the WT! In sceince subjects there are no kind of assignment except for your reports, this meaning that it is THOSE reports they will be grading, and sending to IBO. So while you might be able to get away with skipping assignments in other subjects, for heavensake do your sceince reports, or you will pay a heavy price, and possible points!, for it later on.

Always compare and contrast

Almost everything you do in the IB is about compare and contrast. In history, English, Mathmathics, TOK, yes almost all and any subjects this groundrule applies. Whether it is comparing and contrasting two stylistic devices or protagonits in English, the results of your experiments in biology, the different ways of reasoning and knowing in TOK, or.. well, you get the idea. Whatever you do, donnot EVER forget to compare and contrast! In other words: Make a statements, argu for it, then argue against it, and then make a comeback argument for it.

Sparknotes - moderate use ONLY

When discussing a book in your language subjects you will always get more out of the discussion if you have actually read the homework for today. However, we all know that in IB, sometimes you do not have time for it all, and often language subjects (english esspecially) gets sacrificed. Why? Because for an IB, language, especially english, isn't a subject that's allowed to make you nervous anyway. Next time you really donnot have time for reading your english homework, hit up sparknotes.com, which suprisingly often is capable of explaining you a 40 page chapter in 500 words! (Use moderately, otherwise you will end up missing out on very important stylistics!)

Do the big assignments ON TIME

And I mean the really big ones: WL, EE, Portfolios, Projects, TOK essays, WT, HI, Projects, etc. If you get behind with just one of these assignments, it can very quickly eat you up from the indside, and you will end up getting (even more) stressed, and fall behind on other assignemnts, homework or worse case senario: other big assignments. It is a hole from which there is sometimes no way out of.

Don't fail on CAS

Short and simple, keep up the CAS work! You do not want to fail IB because you did not do your CAS or do it properly, you do not, repeat, do not want that to happen. Therefore prioritise your CAS and get it gone in very good time, otherwise your will end up with no time to finnish it.

Do not underestimate EE!

Many students look forward to write their EE (while many do not) because they get to make their own choice in an IB related matter for once. However, be very careful, the classic and almost mandatory EE mistake is to underestimate your challenge. EE is not like anything else you will encounter in IB, even if it might look similar in some ways, it's a one of a kind, and it's timeconsuming more than anything else you will encounter.

Choose an EE topic you're already familiar w/

There are many interesting things in the world you can choose to investigate in your EE. That being said, do yourself a favour and choice something that's already in your curriculum in the IB. The amount of knowledge you need to do a good EE is beyound imagination of a pre-EE IB student. Therefore you will need all the background knowledge and approach experience you could possibly have, and school provide that very well.

Don't EVER plagarise
It's just not worth it. There's a 99% chance you'll get caught, and the consequences (especially in IB) are disaterous! If you feel like you can't figure out an assignment, ask for help. You're in IB, it's perfectly allowed! IB is supposted to be difficult, and very very few - if any - IB students pass with good grades without asking for help at least once.

Communication
Are your ways starting to lead you into trouble? Talk to the school. The most simple thing is to go to your IB cordinatior, whos job it is to help you and make you pass IB. Of course you cannot go to your IB cordinator for every little thing, but if it's imporant it is in fact s/hes job to help you. For smaller things talk to your teachers (the nice ones at least) and your student-councillor, who's job it also is, to help you. Whatever it is, they have most likely seen and heard it all before, and have ideas of how to help you. It's always better for you to come to them and point out your problems, rather than them hunting you down, and pointing them out to you.

Just don't panic :-)

Whatever you do, breathe, don't painc, make an honest try. If you do this, ussually everything will work out alright in the end. When we fail at something while in IB, it is ussually because we did not make an honest try. So always remember, panic doesn't make you do things faster, it just makes you do more mistakes while you do it! :-)

For heaven sake, stop reading and start reading!!

2010-02-28T23:41:00.005+01:00

Yeah, so I've been disappearing a little as of lately. The horrible truth and scary secret behind my absence lately, is first vacation, which was meant as a study break, but then turned into a whole lot of not studying. The 2nd reason is that I'm currently finding myself in the middle of my mock exams (midterm exams). Not feeling like repeating this year, leads me to be rather stressed, and short of time for blogging.

I keep finding myself reading graphicjam.com, books unrelated to school or the subtitles on tv shows that I dislike (because I put it on mute on a bad channel to encourage myself to study). My brain has some strange lack of discipline, concentration and commitment at the moment it seems.. Did anyone say procrastinating?

Wait a minute.. what the hell am I doing in here blogging at this hour?? I need to be studying!

GTG!, I'll see you on the other side of mocks.

Grammys: The best, the worst, and the weirdest!

2010-02-06T02:45:00.013+01:00

The best

I'm not entirely sure which outfit I love the most, but both Keri Hilson and Taylor Swift looked stunning at the 2010 Grammys (and I usually don't really care for either).

Taylor Swift looked very old fashion glam with a touch of 21st century, and the hair really compliments the dress well. Despite her young age she actually looks almost regal (you know, like when Nicole Kidman pre the botox madness). I also love it fits her "good girl"-image without being boring, proving that you don't have to show a huge cleavage to be a stunner.

Up until I saw this photo of Keri Hilson, I'd honest completely forgot of her existence.. if she's a big star in the USA I don't know, but she is not very well known in Europe, I only remember her from that Timbaland MV. But this dress is amazing on her, and I adore the jewelery she added. One little problem is the hair: I don't hate it, but it pales in comparison with the dress.

The worst

Before I say anything else I'll like to admit that putting Beyonce´s dress in comparison to Britney Spears´ - eh - outfit, is unfair, because next to Britney she looks great!

The reason I really dislike Beyonce´s dress is mainly because of the fabric of the dress. It's just all wrong, and reminds me of a rug in my grandparents apartment (wait, actually they have better style than that). Secondly I don't like the colour next to her skintone. The mermaid cut is obviously very flattering on Beyonce, but the zipper in the middle works against the mermaid cut. All in all I really dislike her dress, but her hair and make up looks great.

"No no no!", either it's time for Spears to fire her stylist, or it's time for her to hire one! I don't mean to be rude, but this outfit is just painful to look at. Most of all it reminds me of some parody of a cheep-budget s&m madam/prostitute´s outfit, where they couldn't even afford fake leather for the corsage. Really, is this a case of "bad pr is better than no pr" or what? The outfit is incredibly unflattering for her body. Everything is just wrong here, even the shoes look bad with this.

The weirdests

Let's be captain obvious and start with Lady Gaga.Worst of all is that she's very clearly trying waaaay too hard, to a point where she has ended up looking like a futuristic outfit from the 60's. If one is to do futurist it's crucial to do it with innovation, because otherwise you ended up looking like a bad joke like Gaga here. Had the shoes looked even slightly normal or been paired with a slightly normal outfit, they would actually have been fantastic, I love the material, but with the rest of the outfit it doesn't work. Had she removed all the rings from the dress it would actually have been fairly nice as well, and I adore the colour of the dress. But she just had to over do it. And her hair? I refuse to even comment on it's colours.

As for Rihanna: The cut of the dress is actually very beautiful, majestic and the colour is just right. The dress from the waist down is perfect, it flatters Rihanna´s body. But the material of the upper part is just all wrong! The shoulders material is all too thick and looks like it's made of plaster. The feathers should not be where they are, no matter how mature I try to be, looking at this picture of her I cannot help but to associate it with a hairy chest or a newly hatched duckling. She still looks much better than Gaga, but in this case, that's not particularly challenging, is it now?

(Image sources: billboard.com, eonline.com and onewed.com)

Five fast ways to stay slender & healthy

2010-01-27T01:07:00.008+01:00

Most of us will never have that perfect body we've always dreamt of, that is a fact. And this is not because we don't try, no, but simply because our definition of "the perfect body" has filled a divorce from reality somewhere during Kate Moss career peak in the 90's.

There are many dangerous weight loss pills, surgeries and extreme diets out there to get you into your dream size, but fact is that if they even do work short term, they are nothing but a quick fix, and be sure, that if you if it does not kill like some diets and pills will, the fat will be back in no time. But that doesn't mean that all hope is lost, and you will forever be doomed to wish yourself 10 pounds lighter, it just means it's time for a little patience and persistence. Loosing weight "the right way" doesn't mean that you have to turn into a health freak who never eats chocolate, it just means introducing a little thinking and planing into your lifestyle choices.

My five favourite ways to stay slender..

1. Sleep
This has got to be my faviourite way of staying in shape, because it's absolutely painless both physically and mentally. By sleep I do not mean "go sleep 20 hours and wake up a size 34!", obviously. Why I do point out sleep to be so important is because studies have in fact shown that people who get the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep at night, snack less (and get a higher metabolism). Sleeping those few extra hours will help you stay clear of that midday Marsbar, simply because those extra hours means you still have a good portion of energy on your own. And speaking of portion, that brings me to the next..

2. Portion control
I think it is quite a classic among weight loss tips. Staying fit doesn't mean never eating chips, chocolate and fast food, it means eating less chips, chocolate and fastfood. Say your food habits includes a pizza/McD's night once a week. Drop that for a moment and go for pizza/McDs night every other week instead. See it's not really that difficult, it's just a question of a little adjustment and a planing! Is the glass half empty or half full? It does indeed shift faster to the latter if you think of it this way: the less you let yourself snack, the more you'll appreciate the snacks! Not to mention how you'll save money on the fastfood/snacks you no longer eat.

3. Cook from scratch
It's very unlikely that those producing the processed food you eat is particularly concerned about your weight issues, and often not your health either (as long as it's not poison they're off the hook you know). Fact is that in most cases your cooking from scratch would be healthier than the processed food version of the exact same dish.

The younger generation is often a little scared of cooking everything from scratch (so am I at times), but what I've learned is that often it's a lot easier than it looks, and it's a case of Übung macht Meister" (practice makes perfect), you do in fact learn really fast from your mistakes. So go out there and get yourself that good old fashion cooking book, it's a lot healthier and a lot cheep that all that 5 minutes food!

4. Know your food
Do you really know what your food is made of? Well if you took upon you the advice of cooking from scratch you're already on the road to being in control of what goes into your mouth and what does not. However there is another aspect to knowing what goes into your month as well. I'm talking about being aware of the effects of food. To quote a good friend of mine "everyone but the Amish people know that McDonald is bad for you!", but there's a lot more than that to it!

People's favourite argument against my vegetarianism is that it lowers my health because "you need all that protein from the meat, you can't get that else where", but yeah, in fact the very same proteins can be found in vegetarian things such as beans. What can however not be found in beans is the unhealthy (saturated) fat you find in meat (that's the kind stuff that clogs your arteries, makes you gain weight and raises your cholesterol level). And no, this is not me telling you to be a vegetarian, I believe in free choice, my point is that just because you think something in your diet is the better of two evils, doesn't make it so. I am not asking you to count calories and check the fat % percentage of all you eat, I am simply asking you to google up things such as "good and bad fats" and "what contains protein".

5. Water
Water is generally highly underrated (especially considering just how much an average person uses in a day). Water is just one of those few things out that's undeniably great for your body regardless of other factors or portion control (you know as in drinking a glass of red wine per day is good for you, but a whole bottle per day is really bad for you). It has lots of great minerals, it can replace such calorie bombs as cola and alcohol, it helps clean the pores in your face, and it generally detoxes your system. Not to mention you can drink as much as you want and never gain as much as a gram for it! It helps the body get rid of waste products you've obtained from things such as last nights McD or Friday´s party. So drink up!

And the worst way to stay slender is..
Smoking of course!
Smoking is very hazardious to your health in general, most people know about the damage it does to your lungs and the high cancer risk.. but that's only the tip of the iceberg! It is however helpful if you're hoping to shed those extra pounds (and that's not a recommendation) as it decreases your appetite and raises your metabolism. There are many unhealthy ways to lose weight, but the cigarette has got to be the worst.

Among the cigarette´s biggest competitors we find things such as anorexia and bulimia. I chose cigarettes as the worst because it requires a lot less will power, and because is generally a lot more comfortable than it's competitors.. at least until you're dying of lung cancer.

And here's a few things that almost made the top 5
Exercise - it's extremely obvious that exercise is very helpful when trying to lose weight, so because of the obviousness, I decided not to put it in the top 5.
Vegetarinism - A very effective way of staying slender, a lot of people does unfortunately find it very difficult to not eat meat.
Being honest - Don't try to pretend that you eat less or eat more healthy than you do. Being honest can get you far.. presuming that you're actually going to act upon that honesty. Your body will still recognise that cake even if you deny it.
Fruit - is the new Marsbar/popcorn/nachos! - or at least you should try to make it that. But it's a lot harder than it sounds.
Metabolism - Having a good metabolism is a very high factor in your weight (as it decides how fast your body naturally burns off the fats). Things that are known to increase metabolism includes: chilli, exercise, regular meals, green tea, apples and beans.
The leg rule - Remember those unhealthy fats I told you about earlier? Remember what I said about knowing your food? Well here's a great tip for all you meat lowers: the more legs it has, the more unhealthy and weight increasing it is. E.g:
Cow - has four legs: Very bad for you, lots of unhealthy fats!
Chicken - has two legs: Not nearly as bad for you, because they generally has less (unhealthy) fat.
Fish - no legs: The better alternative, fish is very rich in omega-3 (healthy) fat.

Latests obsessions

2010-01-22T21:57:00.003+01:00

I have decided to share a couple of songs that I'm currently completely hooked on.

1. Donovan - Season of the Witch [on youtube]
It´s actually 44 years old, but I just came across it very recently, and I haven't been able to let go of it ever since!

2. The Pretty Reckless - He loves you [on youtube]
I don't really have anything positive to say about the leadsinger, but it is good music and the vocals aren't bad either (although the bit I heard of the live performance makes me think the vocals are better live.. less polished.)

3. Flight Facilities - Crave You [on youtube]
Absolutely addictive! - with a fantastic old-fashion touch.

4. Jurga - 5th Season [on youtube]
I recently asked a Lithuanian friend of mine if she could show me some good Lithuanian music, and she showed me a few different things incl. this Jurga song which I'm now completely obsessed with!

5. Peaches - Trick or Treat [on youtube]
Peaches is the Queen of Electronic (as far as I'm concerned), and I adore her new song Trick or Treat!

6. Elton John - The Heart of Every Girl [on youtube]
Watched Mona Lisa smile recently and realized I was dying for the soundtrack. This is my all time favorite from the film.

7. Alphabeat - The Spell [on youtube]
Just when you've given up on Danish music you get a pleasant suprise!

8. Lou Bega - Mambo no. 5 [on youtube]
Oh so nice, and just full of childhood memories! Some 90's pop still works in 2010.

9. Skold vs KMFDM (pictured) - Love is Like [on youtube]
This need no explanation. I recently discovered this project, and 'm currently trying to find money for the CD!

10. Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely [on youtube]
Stevie Wonder´s song for his daughter. Classic. Beautiful. Timeless

10 Positive outcomes of financial crisis

2010-01-22T12:38:00.020+01:00

The financial crisis is everywhere.. It's on the news, it's in your homes, it jumps with you into to bed at night. Living is suddenly at a very high price.

But there's good sides to it as well, and therefore i bring you my very own top 10 positive things about the crisis.

1. Just like the 1930's generation we'll from now on always get to tell all other generations that they are spoiled!

2. For once Christmas is the cheapest month of the year.

3. People stop complaining about their jobs.. those who are lucky enough to still have jobs.

4. You yourself have become a lot more appreciative of your job. You can't afford to hate it.

5. You always have a great excuse for spending money ("we're never gonna get out of the crisis if we stop spending!")

6. Less CO2 outlet.. no way we can afford to keep up the old outlet with these gas prices.

7. Yet another good reason to be thankful that you live in Europe and not in North America.

8. Economics classes in school suddenly seem relevant. Terms such as "hysteresis" and "the business cycle" becomes easy to remember and relate to real life situations.

9. Being bound to the EU´s Euro rather than the British pound or American dollar no longer seems risky.

10. USA is running out of money to spend on their war on - well - everything! The war on terror, war on drugs, dictatorship, communism, you name it! (they'll take right about any excuse to bomb other continents).

The power of plastic surgery and photoshop

2010-01-12T01:35:00.008+01:00

Yesterday eve I got slightly bored, and went surfering the Internet at random. I found a blog dealing with the plastic surgery of celebrities, incl. some reality star by the name of Kloe Kardashian.

There was a lot of harsh comments about her in the post about her plastic surgery, and many believed that she still wasn't any closer to being beautiful in the post-plastic surgery photo.

Pretty photoshop savvy I decided to experiment to see if I could photoshop her into something that would fit todays beauty-standards and still make her look like herself. So I took the post-plastic surgery photo and photoshopped it into what you see here as the after photo.

(I would like to point out that this is not any kind of statement regarding my personal opinion about her looks or what beauty is, merely an experiment out of pure boredom.. and insomnia)

Personally I think I did a pretty good job on it. Obviously I mostly worked on her nose. Also I did a bit to her upper lip, cheeks and photoshoped her a small browlift.

(original photo ("before" photo) from www.awfulplasticsurgery.com)

Facinating Facism

2010-01-01T19:44:00.002+01:00

I think most of us have been through the following scenario: You think of some thing, you go search for it everywhere, it's nowhere to be found, and after ages you finally give up the search.. and suddenly it's right in front of you! Personally I do this all the time with the stuff in my apartment. I also did it after watching this film called Die Welle once quite I while ago, and I finally found after about 6 months of searching everywhere for it..

"Would Hitler´s rise to power have been possible in the 21st century?". That is the question a German high school teacher asks and then tries to answer through his students. His attempt to answer the question has unpredicted consequences, and some starts to think that things might be getting out of hand, but will he listen in time?

This film is the ultimate proof that Hollywood ain't got nothing on the European film scene. The film is extremely interesting both from a historical and psychological point of view, the actors are very talented, and it's generally very entertaining! Leaving out typical Hollywood elements such as stereotyping, religious messages and predictability, you never really know what to expect and can't help but be taken in.

With it's fascinating, modern and profound way of challenging the faith we have in our own incorruptibility, Die Welle is a undeniable must see!

Better late than never..

2010-01-01T19:29:00.002+01:00

Decades, centuries and milleniums, our generation has been through it all. Happy newyear everyone, and welcome to our new decade! :-) Hope your newyears eve was as great as mine.

Checklists #3

2010-01-01T18:24:00.002+01:00

To keep my thoughts in order, I've decided to do a little check list, as for now it looks like this:

School
TOK eassy
EE (long over due)
Historical investigation
Math project
Biology assignments
Economics portfolios

Today
Bake pie DONE

Bills etc
Pay for graduation hat before 4th
Send study confirmation to lejogbo
Pay for phone before 4th
Send Uni applications

EPIC FAIL

2009-12-31T19:47:00.006+01:00

Just wanted point out how epically disappointed I am with Pogo not getting the $$ he deserves from Manson! I went out and spend my hard earned money on several of their albums and now I found out that all of it apparently went to a 40something guy who behaves like a poorly mannered 4 yearold!? Give Pogo the 20mill$ and more, he earned it!

Oh well, at least Pogo still got his good looks and talent, that's more than Manson can say for himself.

Update: apparently the lawsuit isn't entirely over yet. This was just a temporary payment, for pogo continue paying his laywers.. not all hope is lost.

Checklists #2

2009-12-31T19:22:00.002+01:00

To keep my thoughts in order, I've decided to do a little check list, as for now it looks like this:

School
TOK presentation (due to today) DONE
TOK eassy (due to tomorrow)
EE (long over due)
Historical investigation (due to after christmas)
Math project (due to after christmas)
Biology assignments
Economics portfolios

December
Mums birthday and christmas present DONE
Tickets for nordsjælland DONE
Department date DONE
Decide on new years eve party DONE

Today
TOK presentation DONE
Start on TOK essay DONE
Getting a picture of the city (snowstorm - quite beautiful) DONE
Bake pie NEW

Bills etc
Pay for graduation hat before 4th NEW
Send study confirmation to lejogbo NEW
Pay for phone before 4th NEW
Send Uni applications NEW

Avatars and 3D

2009-12-31T19:06:00.000+01:00

OK, so I went and watched Avatar with a friend on dec 25th. I wanted to watch Sherlock Holmes, but was convinced to go for Avatar instead. I'm not gonna give an hour long review on it, instead I'm just gonna try to boil my thoughts about the movie down to as little and simple sentences as possible.

First of all the animation is obviously amazing, and the 3D thing is pretty neat. The characters are fairly believable and the actors aren't bad either. But the plot is not good enough for a 3 hours film; had the film been 1-1½ hour it would have worked out OK, but because the plot is stretched over a whole 3 hours, you walk away with feeling that you've just gotten a guided tour of the fantasy planet, and not that you've just watched a movie. All in all the film is pretty all right, but I don't intend on watching it again, and I think it was a bit over prized considering the superficial plot (which would have been perfect for a short film). Go watch it if you want to enjoy the scenery not the story. You will leave with the feeling that you could find your way around the planet anytime, but at the same time with only a vague idea of what the film was really about.

And that's as simple as I can put it.

Ideas for CAS

2009-12-18T03:35:00.003+01:00

NOTE: This is an unfinnished post, many more cas ideas to come :)

First of all let me say that the most important thing when you start off a new CAS project, is to figure out HOW to document it BEFORE you start the activity. I've personally learned that the hard way, and lost about 30-40 hours of CAS because I decided to start the project first (and then one thing takes another, and next thing you know you've done like 15 hours of CAS before you CAS before you realize you have no chance of documenting your project at the circumstances you're in)!

Think your project through before you start it!

Creativity:
Painting
How to document this?
Your products (paintings) are your documentation. Also I recoment that you buy a small/cheap book on different techniques and try them out (to make sure it gets approved quality wise), you can then also include a few hours for reading of the book!

Learn to play an instrument
If you can find someone who's willing to teach you how to play and instrument (I recoment easier instruments such as piano or bassguitar), or if you sign up for lessons somewhere you just got yourself some very easy CAS points. But if it's a private person teaching you (esspecially if it's another student), remember to clear them as your supervisor with your CAS coordinator first! And remember to set a goal with this, otherwise your unlikely to get to use it for CAS.

How to document this?
oals could be e.g: perform with this instrument at the next IB party, record 5 nirvana songs I've learn to play with this intrument, etc.

Activity:
Going to the gym/join yoga/kickboxing/whatever
How to document this?
Ussually the gym you go to (or what ever yoga/kickboxing/etc. instructer) has a handwritten or computer list of who were there and when. Just ask them for the list. As it's their own list, it's unlikely that they will mind signing as your supervisor if you kindly explain to them what they're signing.

IB sportsday &party
Both usually counts as 10 CAS points.

How to document this?
For once your CAS coordinator will be happy to sign as your supervisor! (take e.g. a picture of you there)

Paintball
The funniest way I've gotten my CAS points! It should be fairly easy to find classmates up for this (my class did it twice in one year!)

How to document this?
Those who create/plan the event should make an attendace list, futher take a few group photos while in you paintball outfits at the feild.

A gal and her camera..

2009-12-17T23:15:00.001+01:00

Covered up in two pair of socks pants and t-shirts, a windbreaker, a hat, gloves and a jacket plus kneehigh military boots.. and then out in the snow I go! Decided to get some exercise and fresh air by going around downtown taking pictures of the city with my cranky camera, and here you have the result (click on the picture for full size image).

Update: This blog was originally called scripteddream rather than ignorantreflections, therefore it says scripteddream :-)

Library fines

2009-12-17T18:52:00.000+01:00

Okay, so after returning like a billion booka at the library and paying a huge fine for handing them in all too late, I decided I needed something new to read. Two new books, one a fantasy book (yeah I know you need to be either 15 years old or have no life to read this, and neither really apply to me, but I can't help myself) and two novels (in one book) about France during the WW2 years in the 40's. Once I've found time to read them (someday, someday...) I'll give you some kind of "review" :-)

Checklists

2009-12-17T18:24:00.002+01:00

To keep my thoughts in order, I've decided to do a little check list, as for now it looks like this:

School
TOK presentation (due to today)
TOK eassy (due to tomorrow)
EE (long over due)
Historical investigation (due to after christmas)
Math project (due to after christmas)
Biology assignments
Economics portfolios

December
Mums birthday and christmas present
Tickets for nordsjælland
Department date
Christmas holiday plan lined out
Decide on new years eve party

Today
TOK presentation
Start on TOK essay
Buying groceries
Getting a picture of the city (snowstorm - quite beautiful)

A few things about me..

2009-12-17T18:09:00.005+01:00

Age: 19 female
Student: @ the IB
Job: parttime job as care taker
Location: Denmark, Scandinavia
Nationality: Danish/mixed
Height: 5'9

Apartment? yes
Car? yes
Smoker? yes
Alcohol? it happens.
Style? Rather mainstream (former goth/semi-punk, before that hiphop-ish), with some alternative clothes from my younger years still lying around.

This blog..
..is about the boring random things that happens in my life, which not even I care to talk about ;) It's nothing important, and mostly somewhat silly. I'm not sure what the whole idea behind blogs is, despite being rather computer savvy, but I decided to give it a try.