YOUR Tube

It is no secret that our generation spends a lot of time on sharing and following one another using social media (whether this makes us, in fact, more social is an entirely different story). I am no exception and neither are you, right? So, let's talk about YouTube, because I am sure that everyone spends some time watching clips on YT, chances are - almost daily.

Do you subscribe to channels? What kind of clips do you like to view? Do you read or leave comments? 

For me, I like watching funny and humorous videos like the ones on Bad Lip Reading's channel. It's a variety of clips from TV series or sports events where a group of people "dubs" what the people on the screen supposedly say. It's hilarious.  If you'd like to put your hair down after a stressuful day, I highly recommend Barely Political - they have zilions of clips and they make funny spoofs of celebrities and music videos.

If you'd like to watch ssomething funny but with a bit more substance and music involved, you could check out Collectivecadenza's channel, Nick Pitera's channel (the guy is a genious - he's made a video collage of him singing all the parts of the Phantom of the Opera, including Christine). Among Polish channels the one well deserving to be featured is Cezik's channel, Klejnuty. Though I am pretty sure everyone knows this channel already ;)

I am also into watching vloggers (video-bloggers), especially the ones whose channels are dedicated to rating and talking about books (they call themselves the BookTubers - like Books & Quills, a channel made by a Dutch girl living in London, or the channel by Fa Orozco (for those of you who wish to work on your Spanish).

There are also a lot of random channels that I subscribe to, among them are for instance a channel by a beauty guru Michelle Phan, a channel full of fun, scientific info by Michael from Vsauce (mindblowing!), and a channel by Tara Stiles with easy yoga routines.

Tell me if you know/like any of those channels and which ones do you subscribe? :)

What the *BLEEP* do we know?

When thinking about the power of our brains and the power of human mind, it notoriously confuses me that all of us - in fact, with very few exceptions - actually never use the whole potential of what we came to this world with. I mean, it is OK for us to think about the limits and our capacities ("I CAN'T DO THAT!"), but as far as crossing those limits goes, we feel uncomfortable, it all seems like black magic to us, we need to first get acquiainted with the thought of stepping out of our comfort zone. If you nurtured your mind with beliefs that you cannot do something, that you won't achieve it no matter what, because it is out of your reach, think again. Apparently, you are a very severe judge of yourself.

Actually, quantum physicist have discovered that you are capable of almost anything you set your mind to. I once met a professor of our university that was born handicapped, he has no coordination of his legs and arms, he practically was told that he would never walk or run, because he had a brain damage. As a kid, he refused to live a life like that and, taking baby-steps, did regular and meticulous workouts,. Because he was an orphan and Polish reality was what it was back then, he used jars filled with beans and sand as his equipment and a mirror to control his movements. So the great story here is, he succeded and not only did he learn to walk normally. As an adult, he participated in various sports events as a runner and in relays, at one point beating the record of an olympic runner. If you don't believe me, try to spot him on the corridors of our university and ask him yourself if it's true. Wojciech Lipoński

I could go for hours on end about the mysteries of our mind and brains. It's hardly fair that we talk about multiplying vectors on our science classes in high school instead of topics like those. There is so much more to discover on the topic. The question remains: How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

Some Kindle wonderful!

Hello, everybody!

Many of you have been asking me about my Kindle device - the price, how useful I think it is, which one to choose for yourself. Let me answer some of those questions now, I hope they can be of help to you. I am going to focus on the features I use as a student and those I find useful on a day-to-day basis.

First and foremost, the question concerning the utility of the device. Personally I use it A LOT!!! With each Kindle you get an account on Amazon (which produces Kindle) - as soon as you register you get 7 monolingual dictionaries for free (Oxford English, American English, French, Spanish, German, Portugese and Italian). These dictionaries are an up-to-date, solid base for any student of linguistics and actually if you were to buy paperback verions, you would already pay twice as much as for your Kindle device. 

You can also get all the classics on these languages for free - Shakespeare, Austen, Rabelais, Hugo, Cervantes, Alarcón... You name it. That is very convenient - all you need is make a list and there you have all the obligatory books for your classes in one place. 

There are many offers on Amazon permitting you to download free ebooks, but you can also use websites that are dedicated to searching such books for you, for instance KindleBuffet. If you are looking for an ebook in Polish... Well, you know where to look for free PDF files (WINK WINK), and Calibre is a great software to convert any text format (.doc; .pdf; etc.) to a Kindle format (.mobi) in a very simple, user-friendly way. As easy as apple-pie. Also, it is possible to display scanned materials from our Institute library on the pdf, which is a life-saver if you need a book that cannot be taken out of the library.

IF I WANT TO BUY AN E-READER, WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE?

Let me help you with that: You have to be VERY SPECIFIC what you need your Kindle for and what are your needs as a reader. There is a lot to choose from and, naturally, Kindle isn't the only option, there are other firms. I would recommend Kindle as it is linked to Amazon and you get a lot of things for free, the customer service is great (I tried :) ) and Amazon lauches new generations of e-readers each year. You can browse the models for yourself HERE. Currently the newest generation is Kindle Fire which is sth between an e-reader and a tablet, apparently. I actually don't get the point - why wouldn't you just buy a tablet then?...

ANYWAY... So before I went shopping for an e-reader I focused on what I wanted to have. I needed a light, easy-to-use device with e-ink technology (and e-paper). Why? Because under the stream of sunlight you can actually read comfortably everything that is written and the battery holds for over a month (LCD screens are cheaper, but you have to charge every few hours and they make your eyes feel sore and tired). I was sure I also wanted the version where the screen would react to my touch - I wanted a reading experience as similar to reading an actual book as possible. So I decided to buy Kindle Touch - a simple, perfect match for my needs. If you want to connect to social media, watch TV series or browse the internet on your device, you should probably go with the new generation devices, however. 

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS THAT I FIND USEFUL: After a tiresome day I find it useful to have an option to enlarge the font and change the density of words per page. You can highlight some passages and it will be automatically saved in a seperate file. You can share highlighted passages on Facebook, Twitter or on your blog (I've never used it, though). It has a wireless connection, so you don't need to connect it to a computer to download a book. I have downloaded a few audiobooks (again, free :P ) while I was shopping at Stary Browar. It has a text-to-speech option in English, so if you've downloaded a legitimate copy of a book, you can turn it on and it will read out loud the text for you - a bit like Ivona, but it SO MUCH less creepy, robot-like and artificial. I find it useful to be able to tap on a word in English, French or Spanish while reading a book and the definition just pops up. Makes it SO comfortable to read in a foreign language.

The whole post seems like an advertisement of Kindle, which might seem a bit over the top and out there. But it's just because I really do think it's useful and fun and the best device there is when it comes to e-readers. I hope I was able to help at least one person with their choice :)) Please feel free to comment down below on the post. If you have any further questions, I will be happy to answer them here or in person.

Cheery bye!!

P.S. I am still new to blogging, but I put some links for you in the text, I hope they are visible and that they work.

Peaches for Monsieur le Cure

Peaches for Monsieur le Cure is the 3rd and last part of the Chocolat trilogy by Joanne Harris, an English contemporary author, who combines in her one-of-a-kind way fantastic narrative skills and a certain poetic flow in her descriptions. Once you've picked any of her novels, you find yourself utterly immersed in the atmosphere of magic rituals, the non-obvious interpretation of reality, and before you know it, you get seduced by the subtle and hypnotising voice of the story-teller who invites you to meet the strong, vivid, extraordinary female protagonists which you can either love or hate or yearn to learn more about - but with whom you can never get bored.

This part is a real page-turner and I have the impression that each book in the series just keeps getting better and exceeds expectations.

As for the story outline, I am never eager to give away any secrets but this much I can tell - prepare yourself to be astonished - the finale is fantastic: unexpectant, thrilling and leaving you bewildered and jaw-dropped. If you liked Chocolat (be that a movie or a book) and , I am sure I don't need to persuade you much,