Books vs. E-books vs. Audiobooks

I have several bookshelves full of books. Books, I've been collecting since my early teens. I honestly haven't added a single book in at least a year. And even then, it was probably something I found at the free library at a local bus stop, where you can take or swap books and other things, or leave books and other things you no longer want for other people to browse through. 

Why? Because I have a Kindle app on my phone. Had it for at least six or seven years. I had an actual physical Kindle before the app, so the app itself would be for like four years or so. But I've been reading e-books for about seven years. And then I found audiobooks. Those were something I was avoiding like the plague at first, for some reason. A reason I no longer remember. But, I have an office job (most days), and I'm the only one in the room (most days). And well, what am I supposed to do while working? So I listen to audiobooks while I work. If my colleague can listen to the radio, then I can listen to an audiobook. And the problem is that 99% of the books in my bookcase are in Czech. And all of my e-books and audiobooks are in English. So, obviously, I have duplicates. The question is, what should I do with the physical books that I also have as an e- or audiobook? I'm thinking of just offering them to my relatives because I'm honestly starting to think it's pointless to keep them if I have them on my pc and phone to listen to/read anytime. 

Spruce - How to make a home look more expensive [a reaction]

A reaction to this post.

I was just going through my e-mails and I am subscribed to "Spruce makes" and related stuff. And one of the posts I got in the mail was about making a home look more expensive. Can't say that I would do any of the things described. They said to display antiques and my reaction was: "Ugly". I am not a fan of the look of antique furniture. I prefer IKEA-style pieces. Almost all the furniture in our home is from IKEA. And we're very happy with it. Like, there might be some smaller things I might wanna change but in general, I love IKEA furniture. 

One of the other tips was about including furniture with curves. Again, not something I would enjoy. Also, all the stuff they were showing for these tips was on the brown-ish and warm-toned side. Honestly, I think cool tones make a room feel bigger and in general, I hate warm tones. Especially brown and warm gray. I would never use those in my home. I prefer cool gray, white and blue. With the occasional pop of other colors, if they are on the cool spectrum. We used to have a living room themed in brown colors some decade or so ago. And I'm extremely happy it no longer exists. I would never go back to that color scheme. Even if I do see it on the internet all the time. What is it with people liking the warm and brown tones in their homes? It just feels dim and dark (or dull). And not bright enough. We have even done away with yellow lighting. We have LED ceiling lights that are white - like daylight. Again, I wouldn't go back to what we had before. Ever.

2023 coming to an end

 

    Well, looks like I haven't published anything this whole year. But I really wanted to post at least one thing before 2023 ends. So I guess I will look back on the year in this post and we will see where it gets us.

    Near the end of the last year, I've been moved to the HR department at work because my colleague left on maternity leave. I was thrust into it with very little training but managed to get the hang of it. The only downside to this position is having to use the phone quite a lot and I don't like that. Still, even with that, I write e-mails, or text whenever possible. 

    All in all, the year went past very fast. I spent most of it playing video games and reading fanfics while also watching anime and other things. Whenever possible, I also made art and even got back into oil painting a little. And by that I mean I did two canvas paintings. Other than that, I used mostly just colored pencils or crayons. Sometimes charcoal or pencils. 

Pokemon Go

 

I have been playing way too much Pokemon Go. However, I finally got my own Mewtwo. I wanted that one probably right from the moment I started to play the game back in (I think) 2018. Well, I finally figured out how to get myself invited to 5star raids and that is how I got him. Very happy about it. Really. The only problem with this is getting the remote raid passes needed for it. So the reality is that I'm basically limited to one raid per two days. And that is if, IF, I have enough pokemon in gyms and get at least one knocked out per day and get those 50 poke coins per day. If not, it can be even three or four days between raids. Still, so far, it is the best way I have to win 5star raids. 

I have also found a semi-working way to farm stardust. Mostly just entering one league battle after another and occasionally winning. Mostly losing though. Because I'm not putting in much effort. Just collecting the stardust reward for five-battle participation. Still, good enough for me. For now. The only problem is that there doesn't seem to be enough people battling in the league so I have to wait way too long for the system to find me an opponent. So far, that is the only downside to this. Oh, and the fact that you are limited in the number of battles you can participate in per day. 

Stray

 

So, it's been about a week since I finished the game. It's gorgeous. And adorable! But!!! It's also a tear-jerker. And I'm not kidding about this. It will make you cry. Unless you have the emotional range of a rusty spoon or something. 

What's it about? Well, if you don't know, you play as a cat that got separated from its other cat friends and fell down into this city filled with humanoid robots and Zurks - little critters that try to eat you.

It all takes place in some kind of a dystopian future where there are no longer any humans and the robots live in this walled city they have never been out of. 

As the cat, you get to explore this city and meet a group of bots trying to get out of it and see the outside. With their help and the help of a little bot called B-12, you manage to get the city open. 

But!!! The little companion bot dies in the process! And it will make you cry. And, if you're like me, the first thing you will do after finishing the game, is go on AO3 and look up some fics where B-12 either survives or the humanoid bots the cat befriended manage to save him. 

Staryu spotlight hour

 

It's gonna be a Staryu spotlight hour soon in Pokemon Go. Starts at 6PM. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll finally be able to get a good one or even a shiny. I would really love a shiny Staryu. but honestly, I'll be happy with a normal one as long as it has some relatively good IVs. 

And maybe I'll also be able to evolve it. I had a Staryu, but it had pretty bad IVs and I didn't have enough candy to evolve it. So I transferred it. Right now, I don't have one.

I have recently started checking ongoing and upcoming events for Pokemon Go on leekduck. That's how I know what's coming. 

On another note, but still quite related. I have managed to finally defeat Giovanni, the Rocket Boss. I honestly don't know how I managed that, but I did. And yet, I'm not very happy about it. I did not necessarily need a shadow Latios (? Or was it Latias right now? Don't remember, but one of them).

On the other hand, I had like 3 Giovanni radars saved and I wanted the new research. So I used one and somehow won the battle. And now I'm working on the new research. 

And I guess that's it for this post. Hope to see you at the next one. 

~AnnElfwind

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness [2022]

I finally had a chance to watch the movie. And honestly, it was great! The one thing I was really happy about was that Wanda was not one of the good guys (even though she got a bit of a redemption arc at the end). Still, she died, and frankly, I'm happy about that. Really happy. Mostly because when I watched the trailer for this, it seemed like she was going to be one of the good guys. And I just really hate her. She is one of my least favorite characters. 

But like I said, the movie was great and I really enjoyed it. Action-packed and I just couldn't stop watching. The multiple Doctor Stranges were really interesting, though (spoiler) when our Strange possessed the dead Strange, I had a bit of a flashback to the movie Army of Darkness (Evil Dead franchise) as well as the new Evil Dead game and the titular Evil Ash (main bad-guy). There was just a little bit too much of a resemblance. Including the dead Strange's clothing.