Kellyable

  Being home more often, because of the new restrictions and curfews, has me thinking about a lot of things. Sometimes I see people treating others in awful ways and they call each other “friends”. When confronted about it, they just say that “it’s complicated” or that it is a “difficult friendship” ... I don’t get it! Friendships or relationships in general are not supposed to be complicated. They are supposed to make you feel safe, loved and respected at all times. You don’t need to see each other every day, you don’t need to talk all the time, but whenever you do, it should feel like no time has passed since the last time. Good friends are there for the good and the bad, they tell you like it is, while also giving you confidence. They are there for you and you feel like telling them everything, without fear of judgement. Trust me when I tell you, everyone else, all of those “friends” that give you less than this, don’t deserve to be called friends, and you should let them go. No...

“...It’s hard writing something like this again, but it seems that the world is going backwards. When the threat of this virus was taken a bit more seriously, we all went into lockdown. When summertime came, everything seemed better, promising. However, that hope was short lived. I don’t know if the government is to blame, if society as a whole is to blame, or if it is everyone’s fault, but more and more cases appeared here and the daily death rate has been on an all-time high. The government doesn’t want to shut everything down again. They say our economy can’t take it. Instead they impose measures that make no sense and that hurt small businesses... I don’t get it. The way things are going, I can imagine being home again, doing almost nothing, missing everyone I care about. I’m scared for my parents, I’m scared of losing the job I got in the summer and that I love, I’m scared of being away from my loved ones again. I’m just scared, and sad and angry...”     This ...

Yesterday, it was the last day of the Emergency State here in Portugal. Starting today, small businesses are starting to open, of course they have to operate according to security norms but still, this is the first step towards going back to normal. Whatever normal is now. Personally, I’m afraid. I’m afraid that people will want more and more, and that they’ll take this decision as a sign of “Oh, we can do whatever we want again.”, which is not true. And if this mentality remains, numbers will start going up again and the government will impose the Emergency State again. So, since no one wants to go backwards I can only hope that everyone remains focused on the greater good. The more we protect ourselves and each other, the more we follow the norms while they’re needed, the faster we’ll get over this. On another note, lately I’ve been feeling really anxious (the kind of anxious that takes all inspiration and motivation away). I’ve been struggling to sleep, my mind is at maximu...

What changed in a month? Staying home without a job is stressing but we’re managing for now, at the same time it has allowed me to broaden my horizons as a creator. It gave me the time and space to focus on trying new things, establish new goals and discover new things about myself and my abilities. It started with returning to writing, then taking pictures to go with the posts, then I wanted the pictures to look nicer so I started editing them, but then I figured some pictures needed movement so I took better pictures and made GIFs. Then I decided I was going to share another big part of my life: games. So, I wrote about them, then I recorded them and then I started to learn how to edit the footage to make funny videos. I did that. At the same time, I’m taking a course. What’s next? A lot of things. Why? Because I love lots of different things. I have enough interests to fit at least 5 different people. I like gaming, reading, writing, music (not sure how I’ll ge...

As the days pass, all I can think about is the amount of dates I want to go in, with my boyfriend, whenever this pandemic is over. I miss him so much that I started searching for interesting and different date ideas! After mixing some ideas up, I ended up with these: I made a ton of date ideas and separated them according to price range . Green is for free or inexpensive ones; Yellow is for medium priced ideas; and Red is for the more expensive ideas. I’ll leave you some of the ideas I’ve gathered: The best part about this little “game” is that while searching for ideas, you can select only the ones you see yourself doing with your partner, they’re all completely optional! In my case, me and my boyfriend are normally up to everything, but we are very indecisive, which causes problems sometimes, so I figured this would be an interesting and exciting way to bypass that! Can you tell that I’m excited?! Let me know what your dream date is! ...

I was so, so tired of looking at my desktop ! It was a mess! It was completely disorganized because I hadn’t touched it since I started writing my Master’s degree thesis (so, almost a year ago). I think I spent a good half-hour organizing everything, and now it’s much more satisfactory to look at. Check this out: Before After While tidying up everything, I noticed a screenshot that I took from an old tweet of mine and I couldn’t stop myself from giggling like mad! Storytime This was an interaction I had a few years ago, in 2014. I was 17, almost 18, and getting started on Twitter. On this particular date, it was night-time and I was probably in my room doing something like watching videos or playing games, as per usual 17-year-old me, and I saw the biggest, ugliest moth just flying around in my room... I have a HUGE insect and spider phobia , but the ones who fly and/or move really fast are the worst! I literally feel like dying when I see one. Anyway...

In times like these, it is easy to become a victim of social media. All you see is friends and influencers posting about all the productive things they seem to do all day, every day. Don’t get me wrong, being productive is important, no matter the circumstance, but it’s okay to just relax sometimes. It’s not a productivity contest In my non-productive moments I love playing video-games . My Steam and Origin accounts are not the most amazing, but I pride myself in owning a good variety of games to choose from. At the moment, I am taking a good stroll down memory lane and I’m playing The Sims 3 . In my opinion, looking past all the lags and bugs, this is the best Sims game. Well, to be honest, I’ve never played the Sims 1 and I’ve only played the Sims 2 for a short while in my childhood. So... yes, I’m biased. The Sims 3 is my childhood/ teenagerhood game. A screenshot of my own gameplay. I’m also really into questing-based games and another game I’m playing at the m...

Today marks the beginning of the third week since the implementation of the Emergency State in my country. So far, not much has changed in terms of security measures, besides a bigger control in car travels. Specially now, that Easter is coming, people are used travelling to visit their families, but since yesterday, leaving the state where you live is forbidden, unless you are going to work or have an emergency. This rule will be enforced until Monday. On a lighter and even funnier note, in the beginning of all the chaos, people were running to the supermarkets to stock on alcohol and toilet paper, right? Can you guess what’s the most purchased thing at the moment? Flour. Yes, by the end of all this there will be an extraordinary number of self-taught bakers! Anyways, today I started my online course and I can’t tell you how happy I am! I love learning and I haven’t experienced lessons in over a year (the last year of my Master’s degree was only lab work). I missed ...

Lately, I’ve been dealing with some contradictory feelings about how to deal with a specific person in my life. Just for a little bit of context on how I usually deal with people: it is really easy for me to cut people off of my life, sometimes to a fault. There have been times where people acted in a way that was wrong towards me and I simply cut them off, then and there, without thinking if there was a reason for them to act that way. Growing up and maturing made me start thinking about that and I actually reached out to one or two friends that I did that to, and we actually made up. The second to last time this happened I was ready to burst (patience is sometimes not my strong suit) but I managed to get a grip on my emotions and I reached out to the friend in question, letting her know that the way that she was acting was really off and I asked her if there was anything wrong. And there was. I was so glad that I talked to her and that was the confirmation for me that I nee...

Today was a thought provoking, decision making day. I decided I was going to enroll in an online course at Coursera (an online platform I mentioned before ). I chose the course “ Introduction to the Biology of Cancer ” because I felt it would be an interesting addition to my curriculum. Even though I studied Biology and Genetics, I never focused on anything related to cancer. Many studies are conducted in relation with these diseases, so I figured it would only be an advantage to enroll. It is a course offered by Johns HopkinsUniversity and I am really excited to start! I’ve also been craving some sweets lately, so I figured gelatin was an okay way to try and distract me from them. I had many flavors of gelatin to try out but I found one that was completely new for me: currant gelatin . It was so delicious! I’m used to using currant syrup mixed with water for a quick refreshment but I never tried it as a gelatin flavor. I love it! Speaking of gelatin, have you che...

Today I felt kind of anxious and stressed. I don’t remember any reason in particular for it. Stress was considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) the health epidemic of this century. They define it as a real, or perceived, unbalance between a circumstances’ demand and the ability of adaptation of the person. Weather we like it or not, stress is a part of our lives and if on the one hand it can be useful as it makes us take action, on the other hand it can physically and mentally impair us. How to deal with stress The times of nail biting and hair pulling are over! Check out 5 ways of dealing with stress: 1.     Writing – No, journaling is not just for hormonal teenagers. Writing is a personal and safe way to release all the feelings and thoughts that haunt you throughout the day. I’ve went into a bit more detail about it, here . 2.     Cooking – A delicious carrot cake with chocolate frosting, some ginger cookies, a cheesec...

Today, me and group of friends gathered in our respective living-rooms for a video-chat. It was one of those friends’ birthday and we all wanted to brighten her day a bit, since she (like all of us) is stuck at home during her special day. One of my friends, said she was going to take a specific Microbiology course next week, through a website called Coursera . It is a platform that provides many different online courses, at competitive prices. All courses are given by many worldwide Universities and I was certainly interested. I love learning and right now it seems like an amazing moment to learn something new. I just didn’t know what. But now I’m looking into taking a course, in order to add to my curriculum, in fields of Genetics . Maybe something like Next Generation Sequencing, or Microbiology... But there are many other fields there! From Maths, to Art, to Business, to Languages... It’s amazing! If you are anything like me and love learning about new stuff all th...

Today, was my first day away from home. As I mentioned yesterday , my boyfriend picked me up early this morning and we came over to his house. He lives ~37 km (~23 miles) away from me and I hadn’t seen him in 2 weeks, so, it was an amazing feeling being able to hold him again. We made it home safe but as soon as we got here, we realized we had less food in stock than we thought we had. So, we had to make a list and head out to the nearest supermarket. It was closed. Our only other option was to go to the one in the closest County. That specific County has one of the highest counts of infected/deaths at the moment. Because of that we had our first encounter with the police. Yesterday, or even two days ago, Portugal entered the Red Phase or Mitigation Phase of the disease, where doctors aren’t even trying to discover where the infection came from (as in who were the infected people in contact with), they are just focused in treating as many patients as possible. Therefore, ...

Writing last month’s Book Club post inspired me to take a look at all the books I gathered to read this year (and I didn’t even remember some of them!). These are all of them. They are very different from one another and that perfectly describes my literary taste: EVERYTHING . Bellow, is the book that I’m reading at the moment. I don’t want to get into much detail (I have another Book Club entry for this month) but basically it narrates the story of humankind, offering points of view that make us really think. If there’s anything I really appreciate in a book is that it makes me think and re-evaluate my opinions. I’m also really excited to read another book by this author called “Homo Deus”, which serves as a continuation for this book, in which the author gives us his opinion on the future of our species . If I had to choose, the next 3 books are the ones I am most excited to read. The first one is about the story and art of a man that has always fascinated ...

It’s day six of quarantine and today I was really struggling with missing my boyfriend a lot, and just missing physical contact in general. I have a very physical language sometimes and I really like hugging the people I love. Don’t know if that’s weird or not, but that’s how I act. I feel that there is something very soothing in receiving and giving hugs. Anyways, journaling was a big relief for me today. I have the habit of journaling often but today it was really necessary. I started drifting to a place where I don’t really like to go in my head where sadness turns into apathy that turns into not having the strength to do absolutely nothing for days. I hate it. So, I grabbed my notebook and I forced myself to let go of everything. Writing is my way of reflecting on my feelings. I can deconstruct my problems on my own, most of the times, to the point of starting an entry with an issue and ending it with a solution. I love that about writing. It allows my mind to flow in...

Today I left the house for a while after being inside for the entire weekend (besides occasionally coming outside to look at the view or check out my flowers or even to watch my cat playing, chasing out butterflies and bees). I got in my car and went to pick up my mom from work, in order for her to avoid public transportation. While I was waiting for her in the car, I got to thinking about the simple things I used to take for granted. Things like going out for coffee with my friends, getting on a train every Friday to go stay with my boyfriend for the weekend, going to birthday parties, going to the movies, going out for dinner... I mean, sometimes I even declined some invitations just because I “didn’t feel like it”. It’s common to hear people tell us to enjoy life as we have it, because things can change very quickly and right now that sentence has never made more sense. We really only appreciate certain things when we lose them. We appreciate breathing normally when we hav...

In order to maintain some sort sanity, an important aspect of quarantine is keeping a routine . If you’re one of those people at home with “nothing to do” it can be easy to fall into that bed-couch-bed pattern, with some food brakes in between, which is not healthy for your mind nor your body and eventually you’ll end up feeling bored and frustrated. A planner can be a great ally for this. At the moment, I’m writing in my planner things like “Have breakfast”, “Brush teeth”, “Take a shower”, “Tidy up bedroom”. It might seem silly but since we are at home it’s easy to sometimes let go of those little things we do every day to take care of ourselves, so the planner is always there to keep you accountable . And the act of ticking every single one of your plans for the day, no matter how silly or simple they sound, we’ll give you a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. You won’t have the feeling of “I did nothing today”. Don’t get me wrong, doing nothing is absolutely neces...