Hello there, Friday!

Wishing you a dazzling weekend!

Found in Links // 10.07.2014

1. What a creative and cute way to keep travel memento. Especially for a souvenir sucker like me, who loves keeping tickets, museum passes, maps, room keys, local currency, and little souvenirs from places I visit! I must do this next time I go on a trip!  

2. This one made me laugh! You might be facing this right now. If not, it won't be long until you do!

3. Ever imagined how nice it would be to hire your favourite band? 

4. An illustrator captures the lives of famous people through their belongings.

5. Wouldn't mind being in one of these right now...

July Muse: Katharine Hepburn

Fierce, feminine and irresistibly charming Katharine Hepburn.

One of the top ladies of the 40's, she was the perfect model of the Hawksian Woman: a woman  who is witty, smart, up-front, strong, a woman who can easily "beat a man in a verbal conflict", without ever letting go of her feminine charm and sensitivity. 

Independent, outspoken and a free-spirit at heart, Katharine Hepburn was one of the first women wearing trousers, defying social norms and conventions of the time.

At a young age, Hepburn lost the person she adored the most in her life. As she went to his room looking for him, she found him hung with a bed sheet around his neck. For years she adopted his birthday as her own.

Find and fall in deep love with this goddess here:

Bringing Up Baby, by Howard Hawks

The Philadelphia Story, by George Cukor

Stage Door, by Gregory La Cava

The African Queen, by John Huston

Little Women, by George Cukor

Is There Such A Thing As Humane Meat?

Very recently, I've become a  veganish vegetarian. 

"Veganish" due to the fact that most vegetarian options in restaurants, usually have cheese, and since I often go out for lunch, this still is the "better option". Still, I am working in becoming a total vegan.

There are three reasons I chose to change my lifestyle: health, animal welfare & the environment. Which comes first, second third? I can't say, as I consider all three of them equally important.

Naturally, alongside this massive lifestyle change, came an intense research about every thing related to the subject. The more books and articles I read, the more research I found, and the more documentaries I watched, the more convinced I was of my choice. 

The click in my mind came as soon as I became conscious of what really happens behind the bacon on the plate, the meat aisle in the supermarket, the milk in the cereal, and even the makeup on our face... yes, sadly animals can suffer an "accidental" horrific and slow death, when scientists test our makeup on them. Beside the monetary cost of what we buy, there's another cost we should  all consider.

Today I'm sharing the video above, in hopes that it will help illustrate part of the way meat producer's try to hide the reality in their products.

Cheers!

Proud of Being A Multitasker? Think Again.

Are you one of those people who are proud of being able to multi-task? Try Singletasking* in every single aspect of your life for one day, and let's see how far your pride goes.

That's right,  if you live in this day and age, even if you were born and raised in a time where every thing was so much simpler, you are likely to have been infected with the constant zapping syndrom (let's call it that, CZS). 

It seems as though, due to lack of time or to the acknowledgement that time is short, we try to make the most out of every minute in the most absurd way.

Let me start with the simplest things we do everyday, and slowly move to more obvious ways we have a tendency to over multi-task. 

The morning routine boils down to a few thing: waking up, breakfast, getting ready.

Or at least, that's as simple as it should be.

Waking up should be about just that: enjoying the moment of waking up, in which I slowly open my eyes, welcome the day in, hold on to my pillow for a while longer, you know, the essential to get to the point when I'm "minimally " awake". 

Instead, the first thing I do is turn to my bedside table. Half sleepingly grab my phone. Turn off the alarm for the 3rd time. Check my emails. Check my instagram. Check the weather. Turn off the alarm for the 4th time. Let's see what news there is today. Go back to instagram, and check what other people have been doing half way across the globe, while I was sound asleep. Check the weather again, to make sure I didn't misread it, and end up dressing too warm or too cool, for the actual weather. WHY IS THE ALARM RINGING AGAIN! AH. GOT to get up! Oh, wait a minute, my friend in London wrote to me?? Emails again. 

Then comes the moment I most love of the day. And to be honest, to this one I do engage in the whole ritual-ism of it.  b r e a k f a s t .  Cutting the fruit, preparing the milk, choosing the superfoods I'm adding that day, puting everything together into the blender, and finally pouring it into a wine glass (don't know why, but it make me feel good to start the day with something that comes out of a wine glass.)

Ah... the joy. But - wait. Wait a minute. 

Unfortunately, I just realized that is not true. As soon as I've finished preparing my morning smoothie, I quickly go to the living room, turn on the news, turn on my laptop, or walk around... See. Can't single task there, either.

Getting ready, obviously is a whole "same same" situation. Brushing my teeth, while I look for the missing shoe kind of situation.

Getting out of the house, off to work. I drive. Am I multi-tasking here? Apparently not either. Listening to music, singing, talking to someone else, talking to myself (!!), doesn't really make my "driving" experience a single-tasking one. Oh, bummer. 

Cooking and skype, somehow also mingle together for me, I don't know why. So does listening to music, while I run. Or playing sudoku, while I watch a light tv show...

The big multi-tasking disaster, though, happens online. Obviously. 
During the day, how many tabs do you have open at the same time, on average? 

Not only do I have several open tabs, but several open windows, with even more tabs as well!

What was that song on the radio? Oh, cool band. What? They're from Germany? Never been. I wonder how Berlin looks like nowadays? Wow. Great restaurant in Berlin. They have another one in London!?!? Wonder what are the best museums in London. Whoa. Pictures of London during WW2. Hmm.. I wonder if there's any good poems I'd like from this era. I'm hungry, what should I prepare for lunch? Ooh! Can't forget to watch that movie! 

Somehow, this is not right.

This CZS is a new modern-day disease that we're all being infected by. 

Why is it so bad? Because, whether or not you realize it, you're going to end up transferring the spoiled habit of being in touch with so much information at once, and in such a short time, to your offline reality. We're becoming more impatient, more unable to listen to people talk until the end, and ultimately, instead of acquiring solid knowledge in a few subjects, and a strong opinion about many others, we end up learning bits and pieces about all sorts of things, unable to sustain our arguments.

We want things done then and there. We want to see major changes in ourselves and our lifes to happen as quick as a button click to a link. We want things that are not working, to be solved as efficiently as a refresh button. We want to be able to have as many experiences as the ones seen on all those tabs we opened. We want to have lunch with that friend we haven't seen in years, but we also have that photo on instagram that needs tweeking. We want to live the most, and we want it all to come as quickly as possible.... which really takes out a lot of what enjoying life really is. Isn't it about enjoying the moment and taking it all in? Aren't we supposed to go through ups and downs in order to achieve professional success? Isn't it? 

Of course, there are brilliant things about the internet, I'm not trying to say the contrary. How else could I learn to cook quinoa, actually be cooking quinoa, and check up on my family on skype, all at once? (I'm sort of joking, on this one.)

What is crucial here is that we become aware of what is happening, reduce the multi-tasking tendency we all have, and to definitely avoid letting that sort of habit enter your non-internet every-day situations. 

* When I started thinking about this topic, I found this video. The guy explains the situation in a funny, inspiring way, and ends the segment with a challenge:

TABLESS THURSDAY!

("Because there already is a Taco Tuesday!")

WOW.

W-O-W.

It's been a loooong time. But for good reasons.

 I've been out and away a lot these past weeks, and I've had lots of things to do. 

Lots of things have happened since my last post. 

TWO major life changes, birthdays, little city escapes, lots of reading and lots of learning. Also, the weather has apparently improved (during most days, let's be honest), and I went to Istanbul for the first time.

Not to shabby, ey?

Monday Mood - 09.06.2014