Day 12: Screenshot of your desktop

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 12: Screenshot of your desktop:

Day 11: Crazy antics create beautiful things

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 11: What is your favorite quote?

It's not a quote, but a lyric: "Crazy antics create beautiful things".

I like it a lot because I firmly believe that the most beautiful moments in life come from the times when you live from the heart. Granted, mind must lead most of our decisions if we are to achieve anything, but sometimes, letting go and just going for whatever you're feeling in the moment is the most beautiful thing. It's sometimes tragic, sometimes exhilarating and sometimes magical, but for sure it will be beautiful.

I guess I can tie it with another quote I like from Tom Robbins: "Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious and immature." It's from the book Still life with Woodpecker, which I haven't read, but I stumbled upon this quote (literally) and, although I might be misinterpreting it due to lack of context, it stuck with me.
When I first came across this quote, I had just moved to the Netherlands and didn't have my life quite figured out yet. I was sort of just winging it, which is completely against the Dutch way of life (plan, plan, plan). I don't plan a lot, mainly because my life has never gone quite according to plan, and I figured out sometimes, if you're too focused on your plan, you end up missing wonderful opportunities that are outside of your comfort zone.

So for me, these quotes summarize my outlook on life, even though I don't consider myself a risk-taker as such. But constantly people will try to push me into planning, into worrying, into acting a certain way that just doesn't befit me. And in those moments, I comfort myself with the beautiful things my crazy antics have created.

Day 10: one food and one beverage

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 10: If you could only live off of one food and one beverage for the rest of your days, what would they be?

-Drink: water. Plain old H2O. I don't drink as much water as I should (these days I'm getting better at it), instead drinking coffee, tea, and artificial low calorie drinks like Zuko or Tang. But if I can only drink one thing for the rest of my life, it would have to be water, the source of life. Honestly, do you imagine not being able to drink water? You're really thirsty but you have to drink tea? Or coffee? Nah...

-Food: brown rice and black beans. I'm Guatemalan, I'm a vegetarian, beans are basically my life. I also always loved rice, although since I made the switch to brown rice when I moved back to Aruba, I don't love white rice as much as I used to (prefer not to eat it but ok). However, brown rice and black beans is a delicious, healthy, nutritious, and filling meal. I read you can survive on this food for months without much damage to your body. So while I would miss all the fresh fruit, pizza, salads, pasta, etc... I would probably feel a lot better with this classic.

Day 9: pet peeves

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 9: Pet peeves

I have so many >.< In this sense I am definitely a difficult person to be honest.
I don't think I can think of them all but I will try as many as I can:

• chewing sounds
• ticks. not the animal, but like if someone is doing repetitive (small) actions
• hesitation (especially when answering a question)
• being touched multiple times during a conversation
• being asked again after I already said no twice
• staring
• when people stop walking randomly in the middle of the street
• when I'm trying to get somewhere and someone blocks my path
• not getting service quickly 
• when you ask something to a group but people just stare at you
• sneezing, coughing
• "You need to"
• "People need to stop (doing x)"
• unsolicited advice
• morning people. (sorry, i know it's not your fault. but hyper people in the morning just...)
• diet and fitness enthusiasts.
• when you're the only one who knows how to do something, so everyone expects you to just do it all the time without them having to learn it
• favors that take a long time
• when you go to a job interview and then they never call or email to let you know you didnt get the job
• when there were other available seats, but the person sits next to you
• girls who think you want their man
• men who think you want them
• when someone brings someone unexpected to hang out
• abrupt change of plans
• people who make excuses a lot
• cold salsa
• lukewarm food
• passive-aggressive
• cars with loud music
• cars who slow down when they pass you as you walk
• when you meet with someone but they don't talk to you
• people who eat too fast
• when you did something, and someone says "if you were going to do that, you should've"
• people who don't silence their phones when they're having a chat (ping! ping!)
• when celebrities I follow retweet their fans
• people who make you ask a lot of questions to get to the point instead of just saying it/ when they try to bait you to ask a question
• couples who go out with a group but then ignore the group

Bonus: when meat eaters in a group order the meat option, but then proceed to eat the vegetarian option first

Day 8: three things

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 8: Three things you want to say to different people

Hm. I don't have anything lengthy and angsty that I've been keeping to myself all this time or anything. I think mostly with people I've said my peace. So.

3- To my parents, thank you and I love you.

2- To my sisters, you're my world, my blessing, I am so thankful you are in my life. I love you.

1- To my friends, thank you for your patience, love and understanding as I stumble through life. Thank you for not leaving. I love you.

Day 7: favorite books

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 7: Do you read? What are your favorite books?

I have a reading compulsion. If there are words on something I have to read it, from labels to signs to pamphlets, I must read at least a large part of it (if not all). That's where my vast shinfo knowledge stems from.

However, I'm not deep in the habit of reading books since I started a dependent relationship with the internet. Still, having spent a whopping total of 24 years in the education system, I have read a vast amount of books in my day.

Still, I can never focus on one or even a few books to say they are my favorite. There are simply so many books which I have enjoyed and which have helped shape my mind throughout the various stages of my life.
So, here are a few highlights.

• Leon Uris - Exodus. Growing up and looking back, I had a strong interest in history and religion, and Uris' historical fiction simply fascinated me. I stayed up all night for days on end and carried the (bible-thick) book around with me, reading during breaks at school. I learned a lot about how Zionist Jews thought of themselves, and the creation of modern Israel.

• Gloria Cecilia Diaz - El Sol De Los Venados. My mom used to reward good grades at the end of the year by buying us children's books from the series Torre de Papel. I have a bunch of loved books from this series (Los Escorpiones, Un Marido Para Mama, Por Favor Vuelve A Casa), but this one really stood out. It presented tragedy and loss in such a nostalgic, accepting and deeply emotional way, that I think to this day it's hard to mention without a lump in my throat.

• Miguel Angel Asturias - El Senor Presidente. I read this book more than once as I went through school, but the first time was when I was starting High School. My older sister told me there was a scene in the book where a bird eats a dying man's eye, so I picked it up for the gore. It delivered, but I fell for this book for entirely different reasons. The writing style of Asturias is, to Guatemalan capital citizens is comfortable and familiar. The stories feel authentic and personal, and the impact the history of my own country had on me was immense.

• Tablo - Pieces of you. I first knew Tablo as a solo rap act when he joined YG Entertainment. I fell for his clever poetic lyrics, so when I found out he had released a collection of short stories in English, I had to check it out. The stories explore various relationships between people, society and the surroundings. Each story is moving and some are very surprising. I was inspired by Tablo's writing style to this day.

There are so many more books I could talk about, but these are some of my favorite ^_^

Day 6: music

30-Day Blogging Challenge

Day 6: What band or musician is most important to you?

I could answer this with one word, but I'm sure it's no need. Anyone knows which musician is most important to me (haha... ha), so I guess I'm just going to take the opportunity to talk about them because, I wouldn't even need an excuse.

And if you didn't know... it's




So it all goes back to when I was studying in Scotland. I had moved away on my own and started a whole new life, on my own. I was in the process of defining myself as a person. Before I moved away, I was going through one of the toughest periods of my life, which had sort of took some of my joy away from me. I was angry, sad and confused, and it reflected on everything I chose to surround myself, from clothes and food to movies and of course, music.

But by the third year of uni, I had considerably healed, I loved my classes, my teachers, the friends I made, and the country itself. It was literally as if color had returned into my life. So when my house mates introduced me to Kpop, it really resonated.
The happy vibes and positive messages of some of the songs really helped me stay positive. I quickly took to SHINee, and started following them. I did have a previous history of being a fangirl (#sorrynotsorry), so I fell right into it.

Seeing how hard SHINee worked, inspired me to work hard too. I felt if they could work so hard and have discipline to achieve their goals, and I admired them for it, that I should also work hard, have discipline and achieve my goals. My grades were the best by my last year, and I got a first (9/10) for my dissertation.
By then, I was convinced that SHINee was a positive influence on me, and fangirling was actually helping me do better.

I got the chance to see them in person in London, literally for like 5 minutes, but for me it was worth the travel. As my (bad) luck would have it, my bias wasn't feeling well and left early without greeting us, but the rest of the members did come to say hello and no matter how long I live, I will never forget how they literally glowed.

Soon after, I moved to the Netherlands, which somehow ended up being one of the best and simultaneously worst times of my life. But through the good and the bad, still, SHINee's music cheers me up and makes me feel happy.

I see now that my happiness returned around the same time I found SHINee, so they are always connected to that part of me.