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balancing self care and studies

make sure to get enough sleep - all nighters are NOT good for maximum brainpower, trust me. try to make a routine of what time to sleep and wake, as it helps you to feel refreshed during the mornings.

water! at first i hated drinking so much water because it felt like a chore. so, instead i used one of those big two litre diet coke bottles. it means that i can fill it once and then use it all day, without having to keep getting up. remember, your body can only absorb so much at a time, so small sips!

if it gets to the point where your brain is shutting down and you simply cannot think anymore - then don't. pushing yourself overworks you and ultimately means you're not learning/studying as effectively. try taking a small break, fifteen minutes without your phone, just move your legs, give your brain a rest. if you return and still cannot work, take a longer break or even stop for the rest of the night. you need breaks!

allow yourself some pampering. it doesn't have to be much, but washing your face can make the world of difference. cold showers are refreshing, warm ones are more relaxing. to each their own.

make sure you're living life outside of your studies. sure, for now it may seem like it's everything, but neglecting your mental health is even worse. please take care of yourself.

do some exercise! yes, yes, i know. but even ten minutes of some stretches can do you the world of good. make sure you give your body some work, especially after longer study periods. try not to over do it though - sometimes people do longer workouts, which although aren't inherently bad, it can make exercising feel like a chore.

hobbies! find something fun that you like to do, watch a movie, read a book, do some artwork! (and if you do some - tag me please #snippetsofsherlock )

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no caption needed.

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I’m hungry and hollow and just want something to call my own.

Richard Siken, Wishbone (Crush)

Richard Siken, Crush

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! 

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

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Normalise liking poetry because you like the way it sounds and art because you think its beautiful. You don’t have to understand the deeper meaning of something to appreciate it - poetry is bloody difficult to analyse and art requires an extensive knowledge of movements and artists to properly get - so please just wonder around art galleries and decide which pieces you’d buy if you could, and read out lines of poetry simply because they have a nice ring to them.

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also the glorification of french girl style creates the fictional ideal of a parisian woman that lets white american girls live out their dreams of racial purity without having to directly admit it

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I’ve spent a life

Chasing stories

To tell when I’m old.

Atticus

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we need #HELP

PLEASE take the time to learn about what is happening in Turkey at the moment

this is not a joke.

TURKEY IS BEING BURNT DOWN! and It’s not a natural disaster, it’s arson. literal terror. a crime. there are 81 fires going on in 23 different cities. this has been going on for 2 days. people are dying, losing their homes.

helicopters, drones, planes and thousands of firemen are currently trying to control fires in 10 different locations in southern Turkey. so far, three people have died, hundreds of animals have perished and several settlements are being evacuated.

A WHOLE country is on fire please that is not something you can underestimate.

please use your voice for us.

please dont stay in silence.

YOU CAN READ THIS THREAD FOR MORE INFORMATION

TWITTER TAGS

#TürkiyeYanıyor

#PrayforTurkey

SIGN THE PETITION

HOW TO HELP

You can deposit your cash donations by typing "MANAVGAT YARDIM" in the explanation section, to the account numbered Adalya Health Education and Culture Foundation, Vakıf Bank Lara Branch (TL) IBAN: TR22 0001 5001 5800 7273 6305 85.

(USD) Iban No: TR02 0001 5001 5804 8019 7521 30

(EURO) Iban No: TR83 0001 5001 5804 8019 7521 27

ALSO YOU CAN ADOPT SAPLINGS IT IS FREE !!

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I love Gordon Ramsay so much.

He comes from a very poor family. His father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother (he once poured hot tea over her and put her in hospital several times), his brother is a drug addict, he literally built an empire out of nothing.

He credits his mother as his biggest inspiration and often has her cooking in his shows.

When he left his first restaurant he pulled a successful Jerry Maguire - the entire kitchen staff went with him. That tells you what he’s like to work with.

He was one of the first to give a restaurant to a female chef.

He went to prison (Gordon Behind Bars) and taught inmates to bake and they opened a bakery (Bad Boys Bakery) that is still running. He hired one of them when he got out.

He did documentaries about the cruelty of shark hunting and cocaine. (when he discovered cocaine was used by his staff he didn’t fire anyone but made sure they are offered treatment)

His kids are a treasure.

He is always ALWAYS kind to servers.

When one of his partners (Marcus Wareing) wanted to leave they got into a fight and settled it in court, they no longer speak to each other but this is what Marcus said about him after the fight: 

I feel bad that the first association to him for a lot of people is this shouty TV chef when he’s truly a wonderful person. 

Oh and then there’s this:

this entire episode 

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Translation: “I love you. Infinitely and inexpressibly. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night and here I am writing this. My love, my happiness.”

Vladimir Nabokov, in a letter to his wife [19 January 1925] from Letters to Véra, tr. by Olga Voronin & Brian Boyd

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easy homemade jam recipe~🌞🌿✨

ingredients: 1 lb berries; 2 tbsp lemon juice; 1/2 cup sugar

tools: medium saucepan; medium bowl; knife; potato masher or big fork; metal spoon; mason jar (8oz or bigger)

1. put metal spoon in freezer. clean berries & cut into small pieces (quarters for strawberry or blackberry, half for bluebeberry)

2. mash berries with fork or potato masher in bowl. add sugar & lemon juice, then stir.

3. pour into saucepan and bring to a low boil, let boil for about 20 minutes or until thick. (to check for thickness, take out your cold metal spoon. dribble a little jam on it. let it cool, then run your finger through. if it leaves a clear trail and doesn’t fill in immediately, it’s thick enough!)

4. allow to cool, then put in mason jar. let mason jar reach room temp before refrigerating for up to a week or freezing for up to 2 months.

this recipe doesn’t include pectin, so it’s thinner than commercial jams! but it has a fantastic taste, and it’s so simple. i hope you enjoy this jam recipe!

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Nakano Takeko - The swan song of samurai warrior women

In 1868, Japan was facing drastic political changes. The arrival of American ships in 1853 forced a country who had been closed to foreigners for the last two centuries to open. This led a to movement of distrust toward the Tokugawa shogunate  and culminated in the restoration of the emperor’s power.

Some clans and domains didn’t accept this situation and stayed loyal to the shogunate. Such was the case with the Matsudaira of Aizu. In autumn 1868,  Aizu came under attack by the imperial troops. Aizu was a conservative domain, its warriors strictly followed the samurai traditions. The women were trained with the naginata and to knew how to use a dagger for ritual suicide or self-defense. 

When the imperial troops arrived, some women decided to commit suicide, taking with them their children or elderly relatives to avoid being a burden for the defenders or fearing capture. A woman named Kawahara Asako beheaded her daughter and stepmother before taking her naginata to fight against the invaders. She survived her first sortie and was ultimately forced to withdraw to the castle.

Other women decided to fight, and one of them was Nakano Takeko (1847-1868). Takeko was 22 when the battle began. The daughter of an Aizu councilor, she excelled in martial arts, poetry and calligraphy. On October 8, the alarm bell rang as the enemy managed to enter the town. Takeko immediately joined, with her mother, Kôko, and her 16 years old sister Masako (also sometimes called Yûko), a group made of men and women to fight the intruders.

The defenders, however, decided to close the castle gates and the three women found themselves blocked outside. They decided to join the outpost were the Aizu soldiers were stationed and were joined on the way by other women. Each of them had decided to cut their hair like a male samurai. They wore a white headband and a hakama. They had two swords at their belts and were armed with a naginata.

Between 20 and 30 women ultimately joined was later called the joshigun or “women’s unit”. Takeko went to the leader of a squad of Aizu soldiers and asked to be allowed to fight. He refused at first, arguing that if the enemy saw women among the Aizu soldiers, they would think that the domain was on the verge of defeat. Takeko then threatened to commit suicide if she wasn’t allowed to fight. She and the other women were placed under commander Furuya who ultimately accepted their demand.

The next day, the Aizu forces and the joshigun, attacked the imperial troops at Yanagi bridge, hoping to break through and go back to the castle. The women were unafraid, even if they had to charge at men equipped with firearms. When the enemies saw that they were women, they gave at first the order to capture them alive. 

Takeko killed 5 or 6 men with her naginata, but was shot in the head and/or in the heart and died. Her younger sister didn’t want Takeko’s head to be taken by the enemy as a trophy. She thus tried to cut it, but couldn’t do it and asked an Aizu soldier for help. Masako managed to bring her sister’s head to Hokkai-ji temple where it was buried.

On October 13, the surviving women arrived to the castle with Hirata Kochô as their leader. They kept fighting and force some of them participated in the defense as sharpshooters. 

Masako was among the members of the joshigun who survived the castle’s fall. She went afterward went to Hakkodate, Hokkaido. 

Today, Takeko’s naginata is kept at Hokkai-ji. A statue as been erected in her honor in the town of Aizu. Each year, young women play the role of the jôshigun at the Aizu festival.

Takeko’s death poem, that she had tied to her naginata, was: 

“I would not dare to count myself among all the famous warriors - even though I share the same brave heart”.

She was among the last samurai warrior women. Women took arms during the 1877 Satsuma rebellion to prevent the samurai status’ and privileges from being abolished, but to no avail.

Here’s the link to my Ko-Fi if you want to support me.

Sources: 

Shiba Gorô, Remembering Aizu: the testament of Shiba Gorô

“Samurai warrior queens” documentary 

Wright Diana E., “Female combatants and Japan’s Meiji restauration: the case of Aizu “

Yamakawa Kikue, Women of the Mito domain

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*sees spoiler about character death*

ok but maybe that won’t happen when i watch it

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being poor is traumatic. even if you’re not homeless or starving. never being able to get anything nice for yourself, never being able to go out to eat without feeling guilty, never being able to do anything fun that isn’t free, making you housebound in bad weather because you can’t afford to go to a cafe or a movie. it takes a toll. being poor under capitalism makes your life a waking nightmare. this post must be reblogged by everyone.

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I know it sounds fake but you really do have a lot of silent lovers on this planet who look at you and wish they had your smile or your hair color or your humor or your intellect or your intentions or your heart, your manners, your eyes, your ease, even just you. People who are too shy to tell you what they admire about you or what they wish for you or who they see themselves becoming bc of you & they’re too shy to tell you. even tho it isn’t verbalized, the universe has still heard and the universe has loved you for helping out on its creations. You’re that person. You’re you.

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Favourite corners of the house.

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