Van Gogh has always been more than just my favorite painter. For me, he's an inspiration not only because of his art but also his unique way of seeing life. Despite his depression, he still managed to see beauty around him.

“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.” 

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” 

Starry Night Over the Rhone

     His work of art was beyond extraordinary, but we all know just how "well received" he was back in the days. Ignorant people ridiculed his work and the sad thing is, he never knew just how valuable his art was.

“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke” 

     I was beyond ecstatic when the Van Gogh museum on March 16 posted a live guided tour (that you can still watch over here).

just like Amy went nuts in the Doctor Who episode where she saw Van Gogh :O

     I'm just gonna casually leave here the clip where Van Gogh visits his own museum in a DW episode but be warned. If i cried while watching it, you most surely will.

     Have I planned this trip in my mind a hundred times? Yes. The answer is definitely yes. No question about it.

     Visting Thailand has been on my bucket list for quite some time (totally not counting the years and days, nope). Everything there seems to be like a ripped piece from heaven, from its beaches to its countless temples and welcoming people.



     There are a number of activities you can do while you're there, besides gawking at everything. You can choose between riding elephants, visiting all the temples (ok maybe not all 34000 of them), try out their delicious cuisine because it is always a shame to not try the local thing, especially in an exotic place, take tons of photos for your instagram account because that's the most important thing to do when you're on a trip, cause you want everyone to know you're there and they're not and you rock. Oh, did I tell you there's a penis shrine there as well?


     Yep. That's a thing.

     There's actually a list of 101 things to do while you're in Thailand, if you'd like to check it out.

     You can easily find hotels there that are quite cheap, trust me. Trivago or Trip Advisor are good sites where you can easily find the best hotel prices. The problem is the plane ticket. If you don't live somewhere like me where the ticket is 300 times the hotel price, you're good to go though.


     If you'll get there before I do, don't rub it in my face. Thank you for the understanding.

     You never know what you might encounter *wink wink*.

this is an original meme created by the broke and bookish. to use this image, link back to naga sanctuary

Top Ten Books that would be on my syllabus if I taught high school English

10. The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller

I can't write even write a goddamn review of this book, THE FEELS I FELT WHILE READING THIS OMG *dead*.

9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

There's a lot to learn from this book, especially if you're young.

8. All of Paulo Coelho's Works

Cause of reasons.

7. The diaries of Anais Nin

There are no words to express my love for this woman and her writing, her personality, her way of thinking, analyzing, her everything.

6. Hannibal

Self explanatory. Big fan, big fan.

5. All of Charles Bukowski's Works

I do enjoy Bukowski a whole lot. His writting style is raw, intense, something that definitely should be read more in schools, instead of the usual literature.

4. All of Pablo Neruda's Works

I don't know actually whether he's taught in some schools or not, I just know that in my school, the answer was not. He wrote the best poems I've ever read and that's saying a lot.

3. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling

Should I even say why? No.

2. All of Haruki Murakami's Works

1. Every book, every biography of Tesla and Van Gogh

Because they are my inspiration for everything and they can be an inspiration to literally anyone. The combination of these two may seem weird, like why would I even put them in the same sentence, one is a painter, one is an engineer (among others). Well, I've got a soft spot for geniuses who weren't acknowledged in their time. I could literally write a book about how Tesla and Van Gogh pretty much drove me to be more ambitionate in life and how they made me see that the work that you make is important, despite what everyone might say to bring you down. Fuck 'em. Do your thing.

unless your thing is something illegal, in which case, don't do your thing

     I am one of those people who will think of a phrase I heard/read in passing all. day. long.

This week I wanna write about something I saw on Black Mirror, a tv show that I'm not even sure how to explain in words. Haunting is probably the best way to describe it.

There's an episode about cloning (in a way) and a woman, unable to deal with the grief of losing her partner, makes a replica of him. How does this work? Basically, a software takes in all of what the dude uploaded on the internet, every video, every picture, everything he said, in order to have his personality. But we all know on the internet, most of the time we're not exactly how we are in real life, how we are with our close ones. After she realizes it's not exactly what she thought it would be, she says:

These lines were not only delivered perfectly by Hayley Atwell, they speak volumes of how we pretend online, of the image we carefully build here. We upload the photos we look good in, we write and delete and write again until we've got it right, because at least here we can mold us into the image we want.

Name: Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts
Author: Janet Delee
Series: -
Genre: Paranormal
Kindle, 238 pages

This book has been provided by the author for an honest review.


Haunting, humorous, and hopeful, Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts sparks the imagination and breathes unexpected life into everyday reality. 

_________________________________________________________________________


I started reading this book with many, many expectations. Why? Because ghosts. That's a good enough reason. Ghosts make everything 100% times better.

Did it deliver? Welllll...

i wanna say yes.... but, no.

This book is all about people's dreams and their way to accomplish them. Now that's a beautiful thing, both to read and to make it happen. Seeing someone achieve their life-long goal fills you with happiness as well. However, the goals these characters had? One wanted to buy a cottage (i get this dream, i want my own house as well and it can be difficult, yes), one was into crafting, one wanted to be a musician but was too shy to sing on a stage in front of people, one wanted ghosts to stop harassing his workplace and one wanted to publish a cookbook. I get that these are dreams we all have, some mediocre, some higher to achieve, but this is a book. Why would I wanna read about someone dreaming of publishing a cookbook??

This is the place where you can go insane with your writing. The book is your world, so why make it so... meh? Make them dream of yachts with unicorns on them, make them dream to go on a safari and write all about the animals that they got to see there and what a life-changing experience that was, make them go to a shaman and learn a different perspective on life, make them have dreams one would actually like to read about.

I get that they were supposed to be more realistic goals, I really do. This doesn't change the fact that when I read from the perspective of some characters, I became bored and this could've easily been avoided because the writing is quite good, the plot just needed a little bit more of a wow factor. This is a ghosts book after all.

I didn't feel that connected with the characters either and I feel like you have to be, in order to enjoy this story, because everything revolves around their little group.

This was a light book which I don't regret reading, honestly. Despite all of the things I disliked, I think I needed something a little bit lighter than my usual reads so it came at the perfect time.

Rating

Characters: 2/5 

Romance: 1/5

Pacing/Length: 3/5

Cover: 3/5

Plot: 3/5

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