Reading diary #5 Walking actually burns calories

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/a19983548/calories-burned-running-vs-walking/

This article from Women’s Health Magazine is about how walking is actually a very good and efficient starting point to get fit. It’s not only environmentally friendly if you walk to work, school or basically anywhere, but also beneficial for your health and fitness. Walking a couple miles can already burn hundreds of calories if you do it in a little faster pace than when you’re just wandering around. It is a common saying that running is the best way of exercise to get in shape because it moves every bodypart and every little muscle, but on the other hand it can be very tiring and a lot of people don’t enjoy it, including myself. I often find that I run (literally) out of breath after a couple of minutes, no matter if I’m running slow or fast. The only way I can keep up running for at least an hour is on the treadmill. But ever since I came to university, I try to go everywhere on foot when I’m not in a rush, and I found that I actually improved my endurance a little, as well as strengthening my leg muscles. 

I think a lot of people acutally have no idea that walking can be so useful, because they think it’s boring or they believe that only going to training or the gym can count as actual exercise. In addition, in our rushing society, almost no one ever has the time and energy to just go on foot everywhere, yet it would improve our lives so much. 

Veganism and vegetarianism

There is a whole lot of debate going around about plant based diets, whether it is healthier than the one we would consider 'normal'. Vegetarianism has been around for a very long time, but veganism is something that strated to become more popular in recent years. The major difference between the two is that while vegetarianism still allows to eat foods like eggs, dairy products and honey, while vegans do not consume any product that comes from animals, only plants. As far as healthiness goes, there is no evidence that one is better than the other, but if it is sustained in a balanced way, it shouldn't cause any vitamin or nutrition deficiency. Actually, a lot of it can be found naturally in plants, and the remaining can be taken in form of pills to supplement your diet.

But a lot of people are not actually choosing to be vegetarians or vegans because of the health benefits, but for the cause of stopping animal cruelty in the food industry. The great masses have no idea that millions of animals suffer everyday for the sake of creating meat, dairy products and other things that we consume daily. Unfortunately, those people who don’t know enough about the issue, simply act ignorant because they think that if they don’t know the whole problem, they shouldn’t be concerned, or that ‘one person cannot change much’, which is the worst attitude towards any problem. These factories and companies doesn’t want society to know what is actually going on inside these facilities, because facing those facts would drive most people away from ever consuming animal products again. Unfortunately, I still cannot consider myself a vegetarian, but I’m trying my best to reduce the amount of meat and other animal products I consume. 

Reading diary #4

Anti-vaxxers are a danger to the whole world

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/antivaccine-europe-measles-outbreak?bfsource=relatedmanual

This Buzzfeed article caught my attention because I believed that being against vaccinations is much more common in the U. S., but turns out that Europeans are even worse. According to research, 40% of the population in France is afraid of such prevention of diseases as for example, measles. This makes me very much afraid for future generations, because these people who do not vaccinate their children, can affect the life of many infants and babies who aren't even born yet. Obviously, they cannot be vaccinated, and even if the mother is, there is still chance that they would catch it. As stated in the article, more than 40,000 cases of outbreaks were reported just this year in Europe, and counting.

The most upsetting reasons for being against vaccinations is that it allegedly causes autism, which is not at all scientifically proven. Others common reason is religion, which doesn't really make sense to me, but then again, I'm an atheist and never really understood why anyone's god would want to make them suffer. This whole phenomenon is really strange to me, because as far as I know, in Hungary it is an obligation to vaccinate your kids for certain serious diseases, and most people also get vaccinations for those that are rare, yet the number of autists is not drastically growing.

Bunnies are not Easter pets

Nowadays it is almost a tradition for parents with small children to surprise the little ones with a real-life bunny for Easter because they are so cute and fluffy and they surely are easy to care for. However, in reality, bunnies are just as big as a responsibility as a dog, they need to be fed every day, you need to change their water at least every two days, sometimes they also require to go to the vet. They cannot be happy while spending most of their time in a small cage, they can get easily stressed out when they are being dragged around by children who just want to play with them. Bunnies actually don’t just hop around all day doing nothing, they should be able move around, but in order to keep your home intact, you must teach them.

The main thing that saddens me the most is that parents irresponsibly buy these pets for their children and when the child gets bored of the animal, they simply throw them out in the middle of nowhere expecting them to survive when they have never acutally seen the outside world. I think it’s much better to take your children to a farm or even a zoo nearby, where they can live out all their dreams about playing with bunnies and other small animals. I truly believe that they should only buy a pet rabbit if they are taking that task seriously because they can live up to 10 years, and that is definitely a long-term commitment. Or at least if they realize that they are not fit for caring for an animal like this, they should make sure to provide a proper home for them somewhere else, not just let them die cruelly.

The same thing goes for any other animal that is frequently being bought for only entertainment purposes, and then getting tossed away after months or even weeks because it's too big of a responsibility. I personally am a huge animal lover and even since I can remember my parents taught me how important it is to care for our animals because they are depending solely on us and we cannot afford to let them down.

Reading diary #3 : How to deal with a difficult mother

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/how-deal-difficult-mother/584494/

I think that this may not count as a real article more like a counselling segment on the website, but it caught my attention because I have been struggling with a problem like this my whole life. My mother doesn’t exactly “pick fights” with family members, but she doesn’t speak with any of her relatives because they create fights amongst themselves about the silliest things. And while we could manage that she’s not speaking with her side of the family, it also effects our own life at home because she gets also upset with us. Similarly to the writers mother, mine is also very negative, rude and sometimes I can’t even stand speaking to her because it’s nearly impossible to change her opinion on something once she made up her mind.

Yet she’s still my mother, and my father always says that I should never neglect her because she loves me despite her flaws. And I know that he’s right, I just wish there was something I could do about her behaviour. This is where the article comes in, because the “therapist” suggests that we let natural consequences to happen to them when they are not treating others properly, we shouldn’t try so save them or be the peacemaker. According to the article, there are two outcomes to this: the unpleasant person either realizes the mistake, or ignores it completely and blames it on other that they are avoiding him/her. But I think it is very painful, escpecially for a child, to see their mother alone and as an “outcast” and it is nearly impossible to just simply ignore the problem.  

My appreciation for Tim Burton

Tim Burton is one of my most favourite directors and animators, not only because of his very unique and unmistakable style, but also his very over the top and sometimes very creepy ideas in films. He is well-known for his contribution in movies like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and my personal favourite, Alice in Wonderland. I think that what makes him really special is that he was always a “weirdo” and he never wanted to fit in to the other directors and filmmakers in the industry, and lot of people love him for it.

I think his goal was always to set out of line, get the viewer out of their comfort zone and shock them. In his films, “normal” doesn’t really exists, everything that we think is “socially acceptable” is turned upside down. Still, all the movies are so gripping and amusing because of the visuals and the unusual characters, that it’s worth watching every second. Sadly, his movies received a lot of criticism lately, lot of people argued that the quality began to sank in the 2000′s, especially with Alice in Wonderland but for me, it was the most enjoyable movie that I’ve seen in year.But maybe this is due to the fact that I didn’t like the original animated movie. 

His career didn’t start easily either, he started working at Disney in the 1980′s, yet his ideas and creative concepts never made it into the actual films. He made his first successfull short story Frankenweenie while working at Disney, but after the movie hit the cinemas, he got fired because they blamed him for using the company’s money to direct something too “dark and scary”. However, this didn’t really hold him back to continue on working his art with a low budget, and his ability to produce hits like this got him his first bigger movie, Batman, and then his career just went on from there. The reason why I like him so much is that I truly believe that he creates art because he loves it, and has such ideas that no one else does. 

Reading diary #2

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/03/beauty-and-the-beast-remake-review/519603/

When I first heard that there was going to be a remake of the 1991 The Beauty and the Beast animated movie, I was beyond excited since it is, still to this day, my favorite fairy tale. Sadly, it was a huge disappointment for me and several friends of mine who are as enthusiastic about this film as I was. As it was stated in the article, this version never even came close to the original idea with the truly enchanting characters and scenes, it was rather dull or sometimes over the top to me. When I got up from my seat in the cinema after the movie ended, I was sad because I was expecting a big dose of happiness, but the catharsis never arrived. 

My biggest problem was that I felt like I was watching a completely different story, and it wasn’t because of the actors, but for the reason that this interpretation wanted to be better than the original, which is impossible in my opinion. I can very much agree with the author of the article that the highlight of the film was definitely Luke Evans instead of Emma Watson. Watson brought the tipical main character to life very poorly, adding nothing special to Belle just the “girl from the village”. 

About tattoos

Tattoos are nowaday one of the most controversial body modifications of all, even though our society is trying to get more accepting regarding these taboos. In this post I would like to get into the issues of having a tattoo and the reason why it shouldn’t be a big deal for so many people.

It is true, that tattoos can cause health problems, they can prevent you from getting certain jobs and many strangers (or even friends) will judge you for it. But why? Why is it more socially acceptable to, for instance, collect art pieces in your house? And why is it bad to do that on your own body? I’ve heard hundreds of times that it ruins your body and when you’ll get old you will look even worse. But to be honest, I never thought that way simply because very few of these allegations are true.

I’ll admit, skin problems can appear by certain people if they’re allergic to any of the substances of the ink, but thankfully tattoo artists are now able to use vegan ink, which is very less likely to cause any reaction. Then there’s the issue of wrong decisions and even worse execution of a tattoo. Yes, it can happen, but humans make a ton of other permanent mistakes, yet tattoos are more frowned upon. The way I see it, if someone really takes the time, money and effort to create something beautiful on their skin, it shouldn’t be thought of as “a decision that he/she will later regret”. It is just as much as a form of self expression as music, painting or any other creative activity, and still not irreversible if something goes wrong or you change your mind.

As for me, I only have one relatively small tattoo that very few people now about in my surrounding because for one, it is in a place that is only visible if I’m wearing a bikini, but also because my family is not very accepting it. Only my parents know about it and they were also very dismissive when they found out. It is a friendship tattoo with my best friend of almost 15 years, and I think I can be sure when I say that I’m not going to regret it. Surely, it is questionable if the friendship will survive throughout our whole life, but whenever I look back I will always remember the amazing times we’ve had together, and nothing else matters for me. I didn’t really change as a person since I’ve had it made, and I certainly don’t think of it as a big deal anymore.

Spring semester reading diary #1

Why is the world becoming more allergic to food.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46302780

As a lactose intolerant person myself, I chose this article because not only am I affected but also interested in the issue of why so many people have nowadays some kind of sensitivity or even severe allergy to certain foods. An allergy can occur because of the immune system attacks substances that are harmless, leading to allergic reactions. According to this article, children are the most prone to develop allergies, which makes it even harder to keep away from the so called allergens. Although, from what I have heard from kindergarten teachers, children who are aware of their condition know what they have to avoid because they know of the consequences.

 The article states that the environment is playing a big role in changing how our immune systems react to these substances, because we are less exposed to infections thus our system attacks other things. In my opinion, our eating habits are the biggest cause to blame. We are taught to avoid these allergens in the early ages of our lives, but the way I see it, if we consume just the right amount, then allergies would be decreasing instead of increasing, which is also mentioned in the article. Either way, right now there is no cure for allergies available, so scientists should look for solution in the roots of this problem. 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald

The sequel of the Fantastic Beasts series was something that I was really looking forward to, because the first one was so good it filled the gaps in my soul that the ending of the Harry Potter series left in me. So naturally, I watched this second movie in the movie theatre with big enthusiasm, but at the and, I was not really satisfied. 

First of all, my biggest problem was that despite the fact that this movie should be about Fantastic Beasts according to the title, the creatures are very much in the background, even more than in the first movie. But why? I understand that the story is so long and complicated that there will be five of them, yet in my opinion they overcomplicate it. There are too many plotlines, which take away the spotlight from what we want to see: fantastic beasts.

Another flaw that I found about the movie that I could not understand what is happening, even though I re-watched the first one right before we went to the cinema, so I expected that it would make a lot more sense. I don't want to mention any major plot-twists, but the way I see it, they wanted to explain everyone's story, like Credence's or Leta's, but it came out as a complete mess instead, because there were too many connections between the characters.

But to look on the positive side too, I think that visually the movie was truly fascinating, the graphic artists certainly deserve praising because when the beasts were present, I could not get my eyes off them, it was so unique and eye-catching. Also, seeing Newt caring so much about Tina but struggling to tell her his feelings about almost melted my heart, even though some people might think that another love story would be very cliché for this franchise. The character that really stole the show was definitely Dumbledore, I am interested how his story will unfold later in the following parts.

To summarise it briefly, I am very curious to see if they will continue this way of telling the story, or maybe after some consideration the directors and scriptwriters will focus on more important characters and plotlines. For anyone who is a Harry Potter fan this is a must-see, but I think that so far this is the weakest production in the franchise.

Angela Marsons : The Kim Stone Series -  review and why I find this book important

I would like to introduce my favourite book series of all times, because I am conviced that is it not the tipical lightweight reading, still it caught the attention of many book-lovers. The series has currently 5 parts, but from what I have read, the author plans on writing many more because of the great success and inspiration she has.

All 5 novels are thrillers/psychologycal thrillers, they explain the story not only from Detective Kim Stone’s point of view, but sometimes the killers’ too. In the first book, we do not know a lot about our hero - she seem like a loner, who is always mean to most people despite the fact that her job is to help those in need. But as the story goes on and we get to know the real Kim Stone throughout the books, we fall in love with her personality - espescially her smart mind and kind heart. The stories are varied, but mostly about murder and killers, although the writer also unfolds the shivering truth about child kidnappers in the third book. Our leading character has to take all the challenges that come in her way, even if it means risking her own life, the criminal always has to pay for their crimes.

The reason I choose this book is not only because of its chilling and rather macabre traits, but because of Kim Stone herself. Her character is so many-faceted, we could never imagine how somebody can be so strong, and successfully helping other people, saving their lives, while almost no one knows about her childhood demons. In my opinion, it is quite fascinating, how Marsons took this opportunity to deep-dive into a person’s mind who is severly hurt, and still is stronger than anyone else around her. I do not want to write major spoilers, but the fact that she never really had a family, lost her only support, her little brother at a young age, and had to shuttle from one foster family to another, yet she still manages to be the best detective in her county accomplishing such things that roughly no one could do after her, is respectable. 

What I wanted to point out with that is no matter how bad our background is or how dark of a place we come from, it depends solely on us how we change our lives for better or for worse. I know that there are many cases where people just cannot escape from their pasts and will never be able to live a happy life, but I am conviced that everybody can change their future, they just need the strength and support to do it.

I honestly recommend this book series to anyone who is interested in a good page-turner, is not afraid of reading about brutality and murder, but also wants to understand the difficulty of dealing with childhood trauma. 

Why animal cruelty is not acceptable.

Today I wanted to write about cruelty free lifestyle, because it is my biggest conviction that torturing animals could be stopped and we should all raise awareness. The main thing about animal cruelty is that it is unnecessary. There are a lot of sides to this, for example treating out pets correctly, or making sure that the animals we eat had bearable living conditions, but also some lesser-known aspects like animal testing.

 This is a topic that I have dived in more deeply for my German language exam, but it is very close to my heart. Many people have no idea, that an animal dies in every 3 seconds in an experimental laboratory, because we use them to test cosmetics, medicine, and even cleaning supplies. These animals, mostly rats and bunnies, but also sometimes dogs and other pets are starved, poisoned, infected with various sicknesses, sleep deprived and tortured to death for the sake of ‘science’. 

The truth is, that this brutality and cruetly could all be avoided, if researchers would be open minded to the new, alternative methods. In-vitro tests, artifical skin cells and algorythms can all be used instead of hurting animals, but sadly scientists do not take the time to change the old habits. But the thing that many people do not realize is that animals have feelings too. They experience fear and pain just as we do, and they have the instinct to pass on their genes to their whelps. Being in a cage almost 24 hours a day sounds not exactly fun, and they live their whole lives - very short ones too - like that. And most of them die even before the tests can show result, not to mention the fact that later on 90% of these tests fail when it comes to putting it in use for humans. 

The least we can do about it is being mindful. There are plenty of cosmetics, and household items that are cruelty-free, meaning that they were not tested on animals. All it takes is a little research, because al of them can be found in our hipermarkets, we just don’t know about it. 

I know these facts sound overdramatic, but I truly believe that animals have rights too, the right to live a happy life. I am certainly not saying, that we can save them from all harm, because in the nature they would die one way or another; but that is the circle of life, it is necessary. Animal cruelty is not. 

My first post

Well, I have never in my wildest dreams thought of writing a tumblr post ever again, but I’m suprisingly pleased with the familiar sensation and the vibes that this is giving me. I like to think that I have always had some skills for writing coherent texts, but mostly only in Hungarian. That’s how I started my first blog here, writing about a story that partly happened to me, but partly was fiction. To put it shortly, this isn’t very new for me, although I know that my English text forming skills are not the most impressive, but I’m certain that this will develop in a good way unless I’ll be too lazy to post, which is unfortunately very likely to happen. To be honest, I’m hardly capable of thinking for a good ending, so I will just leave this here and think about it until next time.