So you have an ambition. You really want to achieve it. You know you’d be great at it. All you need is … for someone to just find you, realise how good you are, pluck you from obscurity and helicopter you right into the middle of your dream, where you work happily ever … all you need to do is keep plugging away and someone … Continue reading Avoiding Disney Princess syndrome at work
There have been two periods in my life where I’ve suffered from severely low motivation. Both times, I have been faced with either indefinite or seemingly indefinitely long periods of free time, with very few commitments. Both times, I needed to use that free time to further a long-term goal. I like to think I’m quite driven and self-motivated, but what I found myself doing … Continue reading How to overcome low motivation
Unlike me, Harry Potter obviously did not learn Latin at his Muggle primary school. If he had, he would have immediately known what damage the sectumsempra spell would inflict, when he used it on Draco in the Half-Blood Prince, by recognising the charm’s etymology, and could have spared himself serious trouble. Here is a fun roundup of the etymology of wizarding spells, creatures and artefacts: … Continue reading Wizarding etymology
Inspired by my recent viewing of the Cursed Child, I’ve been rereading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This thought for the day about confidence (a topic dear to my heart) comes from JK’s sixth book. As a reward for outstanding Potions performance in the first lesson of term, Harry is gifted with a vial of Felix Felicis potion, also known as ‘liquid luck’. When … Continue reading Good luck is just confidence
MARAUDERS BEWARE: Spoilers ahead! I won’t mention any major plot points, but will be discussing the three main reasons you should see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child if you can get tickets (good luck with that though…). So in the spirit of #KeepTheSecrets 🤐 , if you don’t want forewarning even of themes, motifs, characters, magical creatures or artefacts involved, don’t read on. Scroll … Continue reading Harry Potter ⚡️ and the Cursed Child ☠️
People I looked up to as a teenager included the following: friends who were actually nice to their siblings friends with better hair or dress sense friends who were openly loving and affectionate towards their families cousins with engagement rings full-time travel bloggers classmates who did more music practice people with jobs and independent lives rich people anyone who looked like they were excelling at … Continue reading Growing out of role models
I recently graced my Twitter followers with a link to this Guardian article by Yuval Noah Harari: this article is wrong about everything but too few characters to explain y #VR #futureofwork #Robots https://t.co/DzOlVEAC5n — 🌷MaddieLBM🌷 (@MaddieLBM) 8 mai 2017 WordPress grants me a few more characters, so here is my analysis. The article Here is my summary, but don’t take my word for it; … Continue reading Is life just virtual reality?
lifezilla, n.: a person whose behaviour in planning the details of his/her life is regarded as obsessive, terrorizing, or intolerably demanding Brief thought for the day … In a previous post I wrote about being commitment-phobic and keeping your life options open. You never know when something or someone better might come round the corner! I think commitment-phobia is an illusory attempt at holding onto the … Continue reading Don’t be a lifezilla
I spent another fun afternoon yesterday at Bermondsey’s White Cube gallery. It’s quite fun to walk around with a friend and try to figure out, with the help of the exhibition guide, what on earth modern art is all about. Still no clue. Jurgen Partenheimer First we saw some Jurgen Partenheimer paintings. They are very abstract (they do not represent things). They often look quite … Continue reading Modern art frustrations
I’ve already written about my time in Sri Lanka and Thailand and am finally getting round to posting my tips and pics for Singapore, which was the second stop on that trip. There is one more stop to come: 8 hours in Dubai! Singapore is one of my favourite cities in the world. Every time I think about it I get a warm fuzzy feeling. I … Continue reading Singapore
in my write mind 