Storage limitations

Posted on by
Reply

I have some sad news everyone. WordPress has changed their storage upgrades and the one I had is not available anymore. So instead of paying $20 per year, they now ask $100 per year for the same amount of storage and a lot of extra premium stuff that I don’t want. It sucks! So now I have 7.9 GB used of the original 3GB that comes with a WordPress blog for free. Pretty big dilemma. Which can be solved in many ways. After thinking about it for a while, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to create a new blog. I have my followers here, and “alexandrabemm” is how I can be found on basically any social media so it would not make any sense for my blog to be called anything else. Even “alexandrabemm2” for instance.

Most of the pictures on this blog are from my two years in California, so I have decided to create one or two new blogs (depending on how much storage space all the pictures take) that will work as a California blog. I will repost everything from those two years on that blog, remove the pictures from here and add a link to the original post. This is unfortunately a big project and will take tons of time so it will be some time before I can post any pictures here. For example “My year in books” from Goodreads, or covers on the reviews I will be writing (I don’t think there will be too many since I am not reading as much anymore).

Big project, but not completely impossible. Until then, I apologize for a boring, non-picture blog.

Here is the first of the archives: https://alexandrabemmarchive.wordpress.com/.

Review of “Generation One” by Pittacus Lore

Posted on by
Reply

Title: Generation One
Author: Pittacus Lore
Series: Lorien Legacies Reborn #1
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 416
Published: 2017, HarperCollins
My Grade: 4 out of 5 glowing stones

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

The war may be over—but for the next generation, the battle has just begun!

It has been over a year since the invasion of Earth was thwarted in Pittacus Lore’s United as One. But in order to win, our alien allies known as the Garde unleashed their Loric energy that spread throughout the globe. Now human teenagers have begun to develop incredible powers of their own, known as Legacies.

To help these incredible and potentially dangerous individuals—and put the world at ease—the Garde have created an academy where they can train this new generation to control their powers and hopefully one day help mankind. But not everyone thinks that’s the best use of their talents. And the teens may need to use their Legacies sooner than they ever imagined.

 

MY REVIEW

Pittacus Lore sure knows how to poop out books. And I am so glad for that. Lorien Legacies (also known as the I Am Number Four series) was really good and contained a lot of side stories in addition to the 7 original books. The ending of United as One (#7) was good and open. It could have ended there, but it was great that he decided to continue. Generation One takes place more than a year after United as One and focuses around the new Garde. I thought I would miss the original Lorien Garde, but I didn’t. The characters were all different and vivid and you connected with each of them.

It was easily written, making it an easy but very enjoyable read. The story was good and didn’t feel too spaced out and it didn’t leave any loose ends (except that the ending was a huge cliffhanger obviously).

It was very similar to the other series and if you enjoyed that one, you will enjoy this too! And no worries, the original Garde is in it a little too. It gets a 4 from me.

Review of “Tower of Dawn” by Sarah J. Maas

Posted on by
Reply

Title: Tower of Dawn
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #6
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 664
Published: 2017, Bloomsbury Publishing
My Grade: 5 out of 5 spiders

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Chaol Westfall has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken.

His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica—the stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them.

But what they discover in Antica will change them both—and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

 

MY REVIEW

I have been waiting for a year to find out what happened to Aelin and was very dissapointed when I learned that the next installment in the series would not be about her, but a longer version of the short story Maas had originally planned, about Chaol. Not dissapointed now though. This book was fantastic! But the cliffhanger from Empire of Storms is still very much  applicable though with both of these ending at approximately the same time.

She is a bit predictable though and as soon as Chaol and Nesryn were separated, you could tell what would happen with that couple. For example. But there was also some plot twists that I did not see coming that will make the next book even more interesting.

Do I really have to write any more? If you have read anything by Sarah J. Maas, then you know her type of writing, and this is exactly her writing. If her name was not on the cover, you would pretty fast guess that is was her. Definitely not a bad thing but you kinda know how the story will go from the start.

Sarah J. Maas is one of my favorite authors and my biggest inspiration to my own book so a 5 is a given!

Kosta Christmas Market

Posted on by
Reply

Today was all about quality time with mom. Her work arranged a trip to Kosta. We left early this morning and got back very late. Included was a Christmas buffet and it was really good. Kinda felt early, but it is almost at the end of November. But Thanksgiving hasn’t even been yet.

It was not a big market and compared to Liseberg it was a disappointment. But as soon as the sun went down and the lights were visible, it was very pretty.

The brand Kosta Boda comes from here, so I was prepared to shop glass. But there was a big fashion outlet as well. I found pretty shoes but decided against it. Another day. But I did buy two shirts. Then I also bought a cute flower tea infuser, a vase from Orrefors and a drop-shaped bowl, also from Orrefors. I’ve been meaning to get a vase for so long, it is not pretty to have flowers in the decanter, so now we have one, and a pretty fancy one.

It was a nice day 🙂

WSP Management in Budapest day 3

Posted on by
Reply

The first thing I was greeted by when walking through the door at home, was Ramses of course. He always comes running to say hello when the door is opened. The second thing I was greeted by was Cleo sticking his head out the bedroom door hissing at me. I think I might have been gone for too long for Cleo’s liking. Then he got almost aggressive when he smelled me. Weird cat.

It has been another long day. All flight trips with a layover takes so much longer and is so exhausting. On the first flight from Budapest to Munich, I slept all the way through, even through the big turbulens that apparently happened. On the second though, I had a hard time falling asleep, even if I listened to my classical piano music list. Perhaps it was because all the rows in the back were occupied by WSP. I used the last 30 minutes to a little bit of writing. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?

In the morning today we had free time. It was spent shopping. I bought a very nice notebook at a Christmas fair, a refrigerator magnet and a pair of shoes. That was not the plan, but they kind of matched my scarf and I felt like I needed another pair of better quality shoes.

My calves are rock hard and hurt a lot! So many steps, only walking for three days. It will be great with four days of sitting in front of a computer working again, resting my legs a bit. My feet don’t hurt, but my calves.

It has been a great conference and many interesting discussions in the morning at the hotel. Many interesting things to see in Budapest, many fun things happened. But it has been tough. I really need my sleep and when I don’t get it, I quiet. I hope I haven’t seemed too boring because of it. Because I have had a great time and it was fun to get to know my coworkers outside of work.

Pictures are coming, not tonight, but my goal is to get them uploaded tomorrow afternoon/evening. Ägg-i-skägg-i-rää and goodnight!

WSP Management in Budapest day 2

Posted on by
Reply

I can’t remember the last time I was this tired. But being tired on vacation is basically just a receipt that you are doing the vacation right. Max gear all the time!

This morning was similar to yesterday. We discussed work-related things that we will work on and improve next year and there were good points made.

The afternoon was all dedicated to baths. We (or some of us, not everyone wanted to go to the thermal baths) walked to Szechenyi Bath and had lunch before at a restaurant close by. The food was simple and good. Pasta with tomato sauce.

We were 6 girls walking together to the bath when we saw a pretty castle and a market outside, so obviously we had to stop there. I was too full from the lunch so I didn’t get one of those sweet bread tubes, but I tried and it is on my agenda tomorrow to buy one for myself. We all also bought paprika powder. Apparently you should, so we did. I got one sweet bag and one spicy bag.

The bath was a really cool place! It was like a block of a low building, enclosing pools. One of them was really warm and it was perfect with the fall weather of November. There was a pool for laps and also a pool with a strong current. That was fun! But some people were so disrespectful and bumped into people all the time, both unconsciously but also consciously. Not okay!

Inside there were many smaller pools, hot ones and cold ones. Also several saunas. I tried most of the stuff but would have liked to be in the eucalyptus steam sauna a bit more. My dad’s genes are really 110% present at moments like this. I love heat! I love to sit in saunas or hot water. Not everyone is like that, which is good, but a little more sauna would have been nice. Our main playrule for the weekend was “everyone included/leave no one behind” and it worked.

The changing rooms were special. Small boths that you entered from the outside, and pulled down a part of the seat to lock the both doors on the side. When you are done, you open the other door and go to the baths. So strange. It took me a while to figure out how to lock the doors, haha!

We were three girls left at the bath at 5pm and we then took a bus back to the hotel. Less than 30 min later, I was down in the lobby leaving for the restaurant.

It was called Duncorso and we were served a three course dinner with Hungarian specialties. It was good! The company was also good and our table of six decided to toast every five minutes and each of us to speak every time. I used that moment to thank everyone for the warm welcome I have got and that I look forward to working .ore with everyone. I stumbled on words and it was not good at all, but I think the message went out okay.

I am truly happy at working at WSP. It is great. Fun work tasks and great coworkers. It couldn’t have been better!

After dinner we walked to a ruin bar, Szimpla Kert, the most famous one. It was the craziest bar ever! After WWII, there were a lot of abandoned buildings and eventually people put stuff in there and started up bars (or something like that). Everything in there was random and inside the building were several bars with different focus. The coziest room was the old tech junkyard with old screens and lights intertwined. Or the top floor where there was a hole in the floor. It is hard to describe. So I will post pictures when I get home. Probably not tomorrow. But Tuesday?

I talked to Dad today as well. Apparently, he heard from Grandma, who read my blog, that I was here now and gave me tips on a few things. I might look into them tomorrow. What is also pretty sick, is that he was here just last week, Sunday to Wednesday, and lived very close to where we are staying. And on Sunday, he was at the Szimpla Kert bar exactly (probably on the clock) a week before me. Crazy!!

One last day (half day) left in Budapest tomorrow. Only free time. I have to think about what I want to do. Probably shopping. And it would be cool to go on Metro 1, which is considered the oldest (or second oldest depending on how you count) subway in Europe.

Super long day, my calves are so stiff. Maybe I will book a massage here tomorrow instead, haha!

WSP Management in Budapest day 1

Posted on by
Reply

I didn’t think it was a possibility that I would end up being one of those fortunate people who went abroad on a conference trip. But here I am, in Budapest with my coworkers.

We arrived late last night at Continental Hotel Budapest. We were delayed but the flight here were not too bad and went by very fast and we were extremely lucky with the transfer in Frankfurt. I don’t think we waited more than 2 minutes after arriving at the new gate before we could board. I have never been that lucky!

But when we got here, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t staying with Caroline, a girl who I am in a couple of projects with and whom I had very much looked forward to sharing a room with. It feels wrong to say that I was disappointed when I got a whole room all to myself, a full 180 bed instead of a 90, but I was.

After lots of trouble getting in to my room I could finally lay down and sleep at around 1am, so much later than I am used to now with my new routines.

Today was the first real day here and it was a very good one. It started with a decent breakfast followed by three hours of the conference-part of this trip. Some questions we discussed I had input to, but some I was too new for so I just listened. Very interesting stuff though!

For lunch all 37 of us were divided into six groups and we went out into the city to find some place to eat. Everywhere we went it was full, until we found a basement restaurant that was empty. Sceptical, but it was not too bad. It was a nice room and atmosphere.

What’s funny here is the currency. They don’t use Euro but something else. And today’s lunch was 33000 of it. Crazy!

The rest of the afternoon we walked around and met up with everyone else at Mathias Church (which has a crazy and colorful roof, I might have to check if it is supposed to be the original roof. We watched the city from the hill and it was pretty.

On the way back to the hotel after the church (we didn’t go in), I spent a little time in the hotel pool and sauna. As a small preparation for the thermal baths tomorrow.

Dinner was served at a medieval restaurant called Sir Lancelot where we drank out of pottery urns, where food was served on a huge platter in the middle of the long table and a group of performers entertained us. It was a fun experience!

After dinner we went to a salsa club and I had such a great time! For the first time since Caribbean, I have had a piña colada that was really good. We danced and all of us occupied the dance floor with our typical circle dancing and scared away all the real salsa dancers. But it was great, I don’t think that place usually has that many guests. I feel like I need to find their social media or something because they took endless of photos and videos and they might post something about us crazy swedes! Fun place!

More pictures from the evening can be found here on their Facebook page.

Then we wanted to go to Szimpla Kert, a ruin bar and the most famous one in Budapest. The line said as much and we decided to go there tomorrow instead. So the description of what it is comes tomorrow.

I am writing this on my phone and the pictures I took today are on my work phone so I will add them to this post when I have access to a computer.

After 27k steps I am so ready to sleep. Goodnight! A fun day is waiting for us tomorrow again!

How is this possible?!

Posted on by
Reply

A few days ago, my mom sent me a picture of the first page of the book she just started reading. I read the first line and thought “Oh, how weird, someone started their first chapter in the exact same way as I did”. Then I continued to read and all I could think for the rest of the page was “What the fuck?!”

I have never heard of Peter May before, or his book Coffin Road. But it is scarily similar to my first page! My first thought was that this might be me in a previous life. But the book was released 2016, so perhaps it was an earlier time in my reincarnation process but in this timeline, because time doesn’t matter in reincarnation? Perhaps I am living a double life as a Scottish author. Haha!

For those of you who have read my first chapter, you will most likely recognize this red-marked part from Coffin Road. May uses different words, but he follows the same path as I do. My first two sentence are “Salt. The air that filled my nose was full of that salty aroma.” His first sentence is “The first thing I am aware of is the taste of salt.” Pretty similar, don’t you think? The second thing his character aknowledges, is touch. Mine feels warmth, his feels cold. Then May’s character opens his eyes after what seems an eternity (mine can’t tell how long she lays there, a minute, several hours?) and it blinded, exactly as mine is.

Then he fills out with environmental descriptions, and throwing up, which I don’t, but then the realization hits both of our characters and they start to wonder who they are and where they are.

Then of course, he writes in a different way than I am, perhaps slightly better. Only slightly though, hahaha!

I still have a hard time believing this. This is insane!! I have had plenty of “what the fuck”-moments lately, but this takes the price. It is unbelievable! His book is a detective story and mine fantasy. It’s funny how two so completely different books can start in exactly the same way. Funny.

Review of “Champion” by Marie Lu

Posted on by
Reply

Title: Champion
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend #3
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Pages: 369
Published: 2013, Penguin Books
My Grade: 4 out of 5 airplanes

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

MY REVIEW

This series was definitely getting better and better and had a strong ending. Very predictable but still very fitting for the story.

The main thing about these books is the way Lu is writing and I feel that her way to connect to the characters are getting stronger and stronger with each book. She does it in a great way, but I am also feeling that it kind of gets too much, if that makes any sense? She paints a great picture of the environment and I feel that the characters feelings and analyzes take words from the story. Or maybe I am just jealous that I can’t write like that, haha!

It is hard to read when you are writing yourself. But that is good, because now I know that I want to use her passion and emotional engagement in her fighting scenes, in my own (way way way in the future).

It’s a good book, a four for sure!

#metoo

Posted on by
4

Ever since I saw this tag for the first time, I haven’t been able to keep my mind off of it. My initial thought was that I didn’t want to copy it. I didn’t want people to know, I didn’t want people to judge me for being one of “those”. But I am. And I am not alone. I have hesitated a lot if I should post this at all, but I strongly relate to this issue, it is so important and I have realized that I am part of the problem if I don’t. Maybe it is time to be brave and actually open up, like so many other women right now!

2012. It wasn’t until two (!!) years later that I realized that this was not a no big deal. During WoW-week (Week of Welcome) at Cal Poly I realized the magnitude of what had happened and I completely broke down and told someone for the very first time. I couldn’t believe that I had been through that and just brushed it off my shoulders at the time. No, of course I didn’t just brush it off my shoulders. I spent two full days crying in bed, wondering why I hadn’t said no a little bit louder so he might have understood. But I didn’t tell anyone because I thought that I was overreacting. So I kept quiet, until Cal Poly made me aware of what I had been through. What was sad was, that at that time, in 2014, I was seriously thinking of doing something about it, tell the police. But then I thought, what good would that do, two years later and thousands of miles away? A hard realization hit me, nothing would happen. So I continued to keep quiet about it.

Some time passed and with the realization that it was a big deal, I actually wanted to share. But I was met by someone who took the guy’s side and I decided that I would never ever share this with anyone ever again. Why would I tell someone something this big and horrible if it wouldn’t help me in any way, just make me feel worse? So here I am, more than five years later and still haven’t really talked with anyone about it.

Then I saw this tag, thought it was a good idea, but I didn’t want to be a part of it. But I changed my mind. This is important and I have to hope that this will have some kind of impact! My Facebook feed is full of hashtags, many of them are probably from women in a similar situation like mine and that is just awful! I get so angry that so many (me included) are afraid of sharing because they might be met with shrugs and comments like “you are overreacting”, “think about it from the guy’s perspective”, “it could have been worse”, “was it really that bad?”. And the worst part? Feeling hopeless, because you know that even if you did tell the police or some authority right after it happened, the most likely scenario is that nothing would have been done about it anyway…

So now that everyone is aware, what is the next step?

#metoo